Stropping Help

dinozzo

dinozzo

Joined
Oct 31, 2009
Messages
1,977
Hey guys im somewhat new to knives and and very new to sharpening, I am trying to learn how to strop my knives properly.

Ive made a strop out of a think piece of veg tanned leather, about 1.5" wide, epoxy'd to a piece of wood. ive got green rouge on one side and white on the other.

basically im am trying to put a mirrored edge on my Emerson CQC-8. im just looking for some tips for a newbie, should i keep alot of rouge on or just a little, should i go with fast swipes, or slow swipes?

Any advice will be helpful.

thanks guys.
 
dinozzo said:
should i keep alot of rouge on or just a little, should i go with fast swipes, or slow swipes?
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Just a little, don't clog up the leather. Go slow and over all lightly, no weight, no pressure, no strength. See stropping like a completion, a way to put some order in your edge. You sharpen on a hone; on a strop you "clean" the edge.

dantzk.
 
You can try warming the leather with a hair dryer/heat gun to get the compound to spread more easily. You dont need alot, just enough to give a thin even coat and then work it in with the palm of your hand.
When your stropping you want to pull the blade spine first along the strop. You want to use an angle that is the same or maybe a degree or two steeper then the angle you used on your stones. You have to experiment to see what gives you the best results. The speed of the stokes doesnt really matter as long as you keep your angle right, just do what feels most comfortable to you.
Another thing to keep in mind is what stone your using before you goto the strop, The finer the stone you use the less work it will take to get that mirror finish. I learned the hard way when i first started. i went directly from the fine(600grit) DMT stone to the strop and it took hours to get anything even close to a mirror finish. Once I added some finer stones(Arkansas) before the strop I got much better/faster results. Good luck and happy stropping:)
 
Is there a good way to clean a strop if you've put too much compound on it? I'm thinking that I may have too much on mine.

I got one of the strop and compound kits from Knivesshipfree.com and haven't been able to do anything good with it so far. I can't imagine using any less pressure or less angle than I am, but I seem to do more harm than good with the strop. I can get my knives on the verge of hair-popping sharp on my Sharpmaker, but a few swipes on the strop and they're barely shaving sharp.

I've just about given up, but I keep coming here and reading about the fantastic results people get with a strop. I'll keep trying, but I definitely need some help and encouragement.
 
Mr .44 Spl said:
I've just about given up, but I keep coming here and reading about the fantastic results people get with a strop. I'll keep trying, but I definitely need some help and encouragement.
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Yeah i feel your pain, i havent seen any results and it feels like im almost dulling the edge instead of getting it sharper, i dont know if i should just give up or keep at it:confused::confused:
 
Mr .44 Spl said:
I've just about given up, but I keep coming here and reading about the fantastic results people get with a strop. I'll keep trying, but I definitely need some help and encouragement.
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dinozzo said:
Yeah i feel your pain, i havent seen any results and it feels like im almost dulling the edge instead of getting it sharper, i dont know if i should just give up or keep at it:confused::confused:
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First lay the strops down and step away from them :D. Sometimes you just need to lay something down and come back to it in a day or two. One thing that caused alot of my stropping problems was once I came to the end of the stroke instead of lifting the knife up and turning it over and doing my next stroke i was rolling the knife over, that will screw your edge up with a quickness on a strop DO NOT DO THAT:D. Just remember people all over the world are stropping knives. It is a learnable skill there is no magic or vodoo involved. You did not learn how to sharpen a knife in 5 minutes,you will not learn how to strop in 5 minutes either. Just stop stressing out about it and it will come remember this is supposed to be a fun hobby don't make it work. Good luck.
 
Hello to all I think this would make a good first post since this thread seems to apply to me too. I have tried stropping many times with not so good results. Only with belts not actual strops. I actually went out and got a belt to set up for a strop, clamped it on my workbench put some jewelers rouge on it and SLOWED DOWN! Smooth and light with deliberate strokes keeping angle and avoiding rolling the edge at the end. I finally had results, actually great results.
I've always been able to get a knife to take hair with a stone but there was a huge difference with the strop. I actually got a few hairs to cut with a hanging hair tests. DON'T give up on stropping, when you get it dialed in the results will put a smile on your face!
 
Watching someone else do something serves to teach me better than just reading about it. If you know a woodworker or someone who has experience with stropping, I would ask them to teach you. Another good idea is to search YouTube for videos on stropping. I've watched a few myself and they were a great help.
 
rwiggins said:
Watching someone else do something serves to teach me better than just reading about it. If you know a woodworker or someone who has experience with stropping, I would ask them to teach you. Another good idea is to search YouTube for videos on stropping. I've watched a few myself and they were a great help.
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Great idea, i completely forgot about that option:D
 
I learn by watching too but some things you must feel. Stropping like sharpening will take time to learn, even those of us that have"figured it out" still started with the same questions and problems. When you first try stropping and get bad results it makes you want to give up and never do it again, the driving force for me was knowing what others before me have achieved with this method of finishing and my want for these results. Theirs a learning curve with every new step you add to your sharpening process, this learning curve will depend on your experience, equipment, and how much you try and learn before doing it yourself.

Sharpening like stropping has a lot to do with feel, the more you can feel it the better your results will be. Me, I could strop with my eyes closed using feel alone (actually a good way of helping yourself) though I wouldn't suggest trying to learn it that way, you could end up stabbing yourself ;)

Keep practicing and learn from your mistakes, theirs also a bit of a art to it so give it your own style.
 
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