Stropped my sebenza with cardboard

Xdm9mili · May 17, 2014

I can't believe it worked. I haven't sharpened my small seb in two weeks after light use. I noticed it was getting dull doing a paper test today. I grabbed a piece of cardboard and Stropped my blade about 20 times on each side. Did a paper test and t went thru like the day I got it. Has anyone else tried this? Will this eventually damage the blade?

kidcongo · May 17, 2014

This works because the process of making cardboard and many other papers involves use of Kaolin Clay (China Clay) as a filler. This clay acts as a very fine abrasive, which is the same reason that cutting paper will eventually dull a knife. It's not cutting the wood fibre that takes the edge away, it's the clay. I don't see how sharpening a knife would be considered damaging it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper

Peter Hartwig · May 17, 2014

Some load the cardboard with compound. People strop with a number of different materials.

nyefmaker · May 17, 2014

I have heard of people doing this on the back of a notebook as well.

Haze · May 17, 2014

This is true for those glossy magazines as well, they can give a near mirror polish because of the clay. It acts just like polishing compound does. I have stropped knives on everything from skin on kills to wood to cloth and leather, you are just basically "soft steeling" the deformed edge back in line so you can use just about anything for that.

kidcongo said:
This works because the process of making cardboard and many other papers involves use of Kaolin Clay (China Clay) as a filler. This clay acts as a very fine abrasive, which is the same reason that cutting paper will eventually dull a knife. It's not cutting the wood fibre that takes the edge away, it's the clay. I don't see how sharpening a knife would be considered damaging it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper

clockman · May 18, 2014

I use disposable razors. When they start to get dull, I strop them on denim, laying flat and not on the body. 5-6 strokes up and 5-6 strokes down for 25 -30 strokes total.

I use my razors about 3 months or more by doing this and using a couple of razors.

Vaporstang · May 19, 2014

I thought stropping removed waves from the edge, giving a better cutting edge. As opposed to an abrasive effect that is removing material. Correct me if I am wrong.

ALSO - has anyone ever used their leather pouch as a strop? Might work in a pinch, while giving your CRK pouch a nice "patina" (if that's the correct word). Maybe the tan belt case would work better....

kidcongo · May 20, 2014

Vaporstang said:
I thought stropping removed waves from the edge, giving a better cutting edge. As opposed to an abrasive effect that is removing material. Correct me if I am wrong.

ALSO - has anyone ever used their leather pouch as a strop? Might work in a pinch, while giving your CRK pouch a nice "patina" (if that's the correct word). Maybe the tan belt case would work better....

If you are "Stropping" with anything loaded with compound (abrasive), you are removing material. So using a leather "Strop" with compound is really "sharpening" the blade. If you take your knife to a honing steel, as they do in a kitchen, then you are simply straightening (honing/stropping) the blade's deformations, and the kitchen steel should be softer than the blade steel. The same applies to a leather strop with no compound. Of course if a kitchen steel is a "Diamond steel", now you are sharpening again. In the case of many types of paper, there is an abrasive quality due to the China Clay in the paper, so in fact your are sharpening the blade on the cardboard, but at a very very very fine grit.

Sheesh......to many items with mismatched descriptions in the knife world.

Haze · May 20, 2014

Buffing/polishing compounds remove virtually nothing so stropping even with compound is just that, stropping. If you are steeling a knife with a butchers steel or ceramic rod then you are just bringing a deformed edge back in line, stropping does just the same but on a finer level.
If you are using true abrasives like dimond loaded items, water stones or fine ceramic belts on a grinder then you are indeed removing material and are "sharpening". That process is a reshaping of an edge that had been damaged, eroded in some way like oxidation or worn out through use.

There is too much being made of the semantics of what is what here, you just try sharpening a knife on a strop or a bit of card and I'll see in a few years.

kidcongo · May 20, 2014

Haze said:
Buffing/polishing compounds remove virtually nothing so stropping even with compound is just that, stropping. If you are steeling a knife with a butchers steel or ceramic rod then you are just bringing a deformed edge back in line, stropping does just the same but on a finer level.
If you are using true abrasives like dimond loaded items, water stones or fine ceramic belts on a grinder then you are indeed removing material and are "sharpening". That process is a reshaping of an edge that had been damaged, eroded in some way like oxidation or worn out through use.

There is too much being made of the semantics of what is what here, you just try sharpening a knife on a strop or a bit of card and I'll see in a few years.

I have one leather strop loaded with KSF black compound. It will remove material in a hurry, so even the term Compound is fraught with definitions. I can take away enough material with the black compound strop to remove fairly large nicks from the edge of any of my knives. This is what you use to "Sharpen" a Bark River knife with a convex edge, which will not work with a stone. So you can sharpen with a strop, depending on compound, and not have to wait years or anything.

Haze · May 20, 2014

kidcongo said:
I have one leather strop loaded with KSF black compound. It will remove material in a hurry, so even the term Compound is fraught with definitions. I can take away enough material with the black compound strop to remove fairly large nicks from the edge of any of my knives. This is what you use to "Sharpen" a Bark River knife with a convex edge, which will not work with a stone. So you can sharpen with a strop, depending on compound, and not have to wait years or anything.

I was obviously being facetious with the years comment, I'm also not looking for an argument the subject. People can call it what ever they want, it matters not to me.

kidcongo · May 20, 2014

Haze said:
I was obviously being facetious with the years comment, I'm also not looking for an argument the subject. People can call it what ever they want, it matters not to me.

I am not arguing anything or trying to be confrontational, just putting more information out there for others reading this thread. Its a conversation of sorts in my mind at least.

bart1 · May 20, 2014

I for one appreciate the nuances being described here to get a better handle on terms. My favorite is the bottom of a coffee cup for "sharpening" (ceramic).