Stroping help

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woodybushman

Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
97
good evening everyone. If this topic belongs elswhere, please feel free to let me know and move it !!

I have recently come into possession of a old, large double sided wooden handled leather honing strop, made by LIPSHAW mfg, detroit USA. The leathers are glued to a felt backing, wich is also glued to the 1/2" thick plywood spine/handle (about 24" long). One side is rough, the other is glass smooth and marked with "Diamond". Both leathers are also pinned on the ends by 5 tiny nails to the wood.

I aquired the strop from a lab technician, who used to use it for stroping Microtome blades for tissue slicing. He said it had been in the lab for over 40+ years.....


question #1) how old is this strop or when did Lipshaw make these strops?

question #2) what is the best way to recondition the strop? the leather is in excellent shape ( a few knicks :D ) and has traces of green honing compound on it. How should i clean the strop leather and recondition it?

question #3) best way to use the strop for medium and large smooth edge knives?

thank you for your patience and help!

:cool:
 
I can answer #3, and bump this BTTT so hopefully someone can answer #1 and 2...

You'll want to carefully put the knife edge at one end of the strop at just the angle where it starts to bite into the leather. Now lightly draw it, edge trailing, across the strop to the other end. When you reach the end of the stroke, raise the edge up off the strop - DO NOT flip it over with the edge in contact with the strop or you'll actually round your edge. Now do the same thing to the other side of the edge. Don't use too much pressure or overdo the stropping, it doesn't take much to go from "sharp" to "hair-popping sharp".
 
Can't help with number one. As for number two I only know the way I do it. Many folks don't like the waxy polish types of pastes because they do build up over time, but from my experience it is the polish paste that actually does the cutting. I prefer my strop to have some build up on there. Before I removed anything I'd use it to see how it does. You may be surprised at how sharp it can make your knife in a few strops providing you have your edge fine enough to strop it when you use it..

Many guys including myself use an old butter knife or scraper and simply run it almost standing up but at an angle so the corner edge is getting down below the build up and simply use the same motion as stropping to try to lift up some of the excess off the leather. You will never get it all off so don't even try. If it starts to look like you are damaging the leather don't do anymore, especially on an antique as you may do more damage to it in both a physical way and a value way.
 
STR said:
I prefer my strop to have some build up
Click to expand...
So do I, I only clean them if they are actually dirty. A scraper like you mentioned works well, a hard toothbrush can also be useful as it can remove the crud without tearing up the leather.

-Cliff
 
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