Strop Quality Questions and Edge Finish

[buffalo01]

Is there really a reason to spend large amounts of money on a strop? I currently just use some REALY hard leather that I bought in an end cut bag from hobby lobby that I couldnt use for anything else. (it was so hard I cut it with a scroll saw!) It seems to work pretty good as far as I can tell but I have never actually use a "real" strop. I had either used the back of an old belt I cut up or whatever scrap leather I had laying around.
My sharpening process is as follows for a pretty dull knife:
Shape Edge With 220 grit DMT 8 inch stone until i get a decent burr
600 Grit DMT until Bur is gone and edge grabs the pad of my finger, swipe edge with good pressure through edge of cedar a few times and repeat until blade shaves without tugging, Then apply microbevel and repeat
Very Light strokes across spyderco fine ceramic stones over microbevel to remove any bur and swipe through cedar again to ensure there is no wire edge.
Strop with 6 micron DMT dia paste (sometimes i will make a couple passes on the 3 and 1 micron)
The edge Im left with is usually sharp enough to pop hairs off my arm with the grain (it often feels as if it is just "wiping" the hairs of but i have medium to fine arm hair), and is not very toothy at all unless you apply a little pressure (with s30v even less so)
So my question is after this very long winded post that Im sure will be confusing for you guys to understand where i am going lol, is do I have anything to gain given my rather lazy sharpening process? (takes about 10 minutes at most unless the knife is really wrecked)

 

[Will C]

There are many different strop mediums. Balsa, kangaroo leather, cardboard, cow leather, jean material, nano cloth, etc. If what you are doing creates an edge that is acceptable for the job the Knife is tasked with, then don’t change anything.
Sharpening theories are a dime a dozen as to what is the “best”way to sharpen an edge. Some even go as far as to use microscopes to examine the scratch patterns and try to refine the edge quality. There are always trade offs with chosing sharpening angles and how far to refine scratch patterns. Stropping in its simplest form is just another way to continue to refine the edge or scratch pattern.
If you maintain your edge often, many times you can just use a strop and skip the dmt stones all together. This is worthwhile in maintaining the longevity of the blade. Each time you sharpen with lower grit stones, you are removing material. This may not even be necessary if you simply strop your Knife daily.
From your post it sounds like you have a good understanding of the sharpening process already.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

If the goal of stropping is simply burr-removal/aligning of the edge, virtually any material is capable of that, IF your work on the stones has been good and the burrs have been made thin & fragile enough to remove easily. If the stonework has been complete, you can strip burrs away and/or realign the edge on paper, cardboard, fabric (denim, linen, etc), wood, etc. An old leather belt will do for that (it's what I use most of the time).

If burrs are still quite heavy and stiff, and can't be removed by bare stropping (without compound, in other words), I favor a hard-backed denim or linen strop with an aggressive polishing compound for those, if I'm otherwise not inclined to thin them more on the stones (best solution).

If the goal is to further polish the bevels and thin the apex, you're likely better off using a harder, firmer substrate with your chosen compound for that. Leather, at that point, becomes essentially unnecessary and even less effective than other materials would be, like paper over hard backing, or smooth wood. Leather's inherent compressibility, even when it feels very hard, is a handicap when used with compound, and will likely round off your apex to some degree.

Edge-rounding isn't as much of a problem if leather is used bare, without compound, as the leather by itself won't be aggressive enough to round off the apex, unless you're stropping forever on it. But again, if bare leather is good enough to do what's needed, then most any other material will also suffice and work just as well, if not better. Aside from an old leather belt I use most often, bare denim also works great for stripping away the really fine, catchy burrs on an edge, assuming they've been made thin enough to remove by such means.

 

[maximus83]

Is there really a reason to spend large amounts of money on a strop?
[...snip]
So my question is after this very long winded post that Im sure will be confusing for you guys to understand where i am going lol, is do I have anything to gain given my rather lazy sharpening process? (takes about 10 minutes at most unless the knife is really wrecked)

Unless you are doing something special case, like trying to create super polished/refined edges on knives for display or competition, or just seeing how far you can push it with an intense progression of 5 or 6 stropping steps and a bunch of fancy sprays and pastes, I'd say for practical knife usage the answer is no, you don't need to spend much if anything on a strop. You can do just fine with usually a single stropping step, and as the other guys indicated, often you can get by for very low cost just using materials you have on hand. And your sharpening progression from DMT XC, to F, to UF ceramic, to strop, is perfect for EDU knife tasks. I use a very similar progression myself.

As David said, when deciding how to setup your strop, it helps to think through what your goals are for the stropping step, and also how this fits into your end-to-end sharpening process. Recently I did a post here that summarized the basic purposes of stropping, and how you can accomplish each. For general purpose sharpening where you're trying to get the maximum effect from a single stropping stage, I think you typically want to accomplish 3 things: (1) aligning your edge, (2) burnishing/polishing that edge a bit (I'd say, 'micro-convexing' right at the apex to produce an efficient and strong cutting edge), and (3) abrading/thinning your edge by removing metal right near the apex (this 3rd objective includes removing any micro or wire-edge burr that your stone sharpening process was unable to remove). The best way that I've seen to make significant progress on all 3 of these goals in a single stropping stage, is to use compound on hard backing. If you want a single do-it-all compound that can sharpen any steel, use CBN or diamonds. I use gritomatic 1 micron cbn paste, really pleased with its performance. Your hard backing can be almost anything hard and flat--even something like a cheap MDF board. To contain the compound, you can either sand the board a bit so the compound sinks in better, or you can glue linen or denim to it using contact cement. Later after you get your do-it-all strop set up to your satisfaction, you may find that there are times when you want to strop with a more limited purpose, say merely to align your edge and you don't want/need to remove metal. For those cases I agree with David, you can use almost anything, a piece of leather or an old leather belt is a good option.

 

[stitchawl]

Unless you are using bare shell cordovan horsehide as a final strop, there is absolutely NO reason to spend much money on a leather strop. With compound, ANY firm, relatively flat surface will do; MDF. Balsa, wooden paint stirring stick, an old belt, denim or canvas mounted on any of the aforementioned, even the cover of a hardback book. All will work if they are firm and relatively flat.

[Rant Mode: ON] Putting compound on an expensive piece of leather is a waste of money. Put it on a cheap piece of veg-tanned leather if you want the cachet of saying 'My strop is leather.' Companies that sell pre-made strops mounted on fancy wooden bases and loaded with compound, selling these for $30-$50, are doing us no favors. They haven't done anything 'special' to the leather except cut it to size, smooth the edges and glue it onto a block of wood that they've spent an hour or two sanding, staining, and polishing. Does it make sense to spend time making a fancy piece of wood but NOT spend time preparing the leather if this is going to be used as a strop? Not ONE of these companies selling pre-made strops case their leather before gluing it onto the block! Not ONE! I've asked them. Companies that sell 'exotic' leather to be used as compound-loaded strops are taking this one step further. The ONLY advantage to the exotic leather is that they have a higher natural silicate count, and so, will be more effective than cow hide when used without compound. (They will save you at least 3-4 strokes per side when stropping.) Cover that up with compound and you've eliminated that completely. The advantage of a pre-made strop block is that it is very pretty. MUCH prettier than a paint stirring stick. Much prettier! And, of course, they have pre-loaded a thick layer of compound for you, saving at least 2¢

This is NOT to say that these pre-made, expensive strops are ineffectual. They DO work. A pre-made $35.95 strop block WILL work as effectively as a free paint stirring stick if both are covered in compound. [Rant Mode: OFF]


Stitchawl

 

[buffalo01]

Unless you are using bare shell cordovan horsehide as a final strop, there is absolutely NO reason to spend much money on a leather strop. With compound, ANY firm, relatively flat surface will do; MDF. Balsa, wooden paint stirring stick, an old belt, denim or canvas mounted on any of the aforementioned, even the cover of a hardback book. All will work if they are firm and relatively flat.

[Rant Mode: ON] Putting compound on an expensive piece of leather is a waste of money. Put it on a cheap piece of veg-tanned leather if you want the cachet of saying 'My strop is leather.' Companies that sell pre-made strops mounted on fancy wooden bases and loaded with compound, selling these for $30-$50, are doing us no favors. They haven't done anything 'special' to the leather except cut it to size, smooth the edges and glue it onto a block of wood that they've spent an hour or two sanding, staining, and polishing. Does it make sense to spend time making a fancy piece of wood but NOT spend time preparing the leather if this is going to be used as a strop? Not ONE of these companies selling pre-made strops case their leather before gluing it onto the block! Not ONE! I've asked them. Companies that sell 'exotic' leather to be used as compound-loaded strops are taking this one step further. The ONLY advantage to the exotic leather is that they have a higher natural silicate count, and so, will be more effective than cow hide when used without compound. (They will save you at least 3-4 strokes per side when stropping.) Cover that up with compound and you've eliminated that completely. The advantage of a pre-made strop block is that it is very pretty. MUCH prettier than a paint stirring stick. Much prettier! And, of course, they have pre-loaded a thick layer of compound for you, saving at least 2¢

This is NOT to say that these pre-made, expensive strops are ineffectual. They DO work. A pre-made $35.95 strop block WILL work as effectively as a free paint stirring stick if both are covered in compound. [Rant Mode: OFF]


Stitchawl

Well then that answers my question perfectly! Thank you very much sir for your input and advice. If that dia paste wasnt so expensive I would play around with a few different leathers I have to see which one I like best.