rt014, no probs!
OK, a common mishap when stropping is putting to much pressure on the strop... leather is a plyable material, and push the blade into it enough when stropping, and the leather will actually start to dull the blade... the leather will start to roll ever so slightly around the edge... as you strop the knife, the depressed leather under the blade will naturally return to completely flat once you have passed over it, and its this transition that ruins stropping most of the time...
Here is a really REALLY basic example (cos I'm sat on my bed
) - put your hand on your pillow, and push down, as if your hand was the knife, and your nails were where the blade edge is... you see that the pillow depresses with the pressure from your hand... now, pull your hand down the pillow, in the same way as you would your knife, and you'll see that the pillow will return to its normal state, and it does this right near your nails... at a microscopic level, you will find that as a leather strop is passed over, if there is too much pressure, it will raise back up to normal at a much more abtuse angle, and therefore is likely to round off the edge that you've spent ages getting sharp with stones or sandpaper...
I find the key is to place your blade on the strop, and ever so slightly, push the blade
towards the leather, raising the angle as you do so... once you feel it
bite into the leather, stop... this is the angle you want to use and maintain whilst stropping your blade... (when finding the angle, DO be light, otherwise you'll cut up your strop)... then, with a steady hand, just keep this angle and drag towards you, and REALLY try to keep a steady hand and angle... if you move your hand too much, your are again in danger of removing that sharp edge and rounding it off... LOTS OF PEOPLE DO THIS, and then give up...
When you strop, if you have the correct angle, you should feel a kind of bite on the blades edge, its very small, but it doesn't feel smooth. That is because the edge is where its meant to be... as a human being, you will naturally raise the angle very slightly, depending on how careful you are (if you are not, you will raise TOO much at the end of the drag, and again, round your edge).
It takes a little practice... maybe start off with a penknife or small folder... I being a novive, and not knowing otherwise, just started with my FBM, but must have had beginners luck.
I believe the trick is to be slow, precise and deliberate, rather than trying to be quick... you'll only end up being inaccurate and putting more time into it, or even going back to your stones/sandpaper...
As I said, practice, and you'll be getting the edge you want with maybe 10 minutes on your strop...
Good compound is recommended, although I've also done stropping on a belt that I was wearing, and obviously couldn't have compound on that... and it still got very sharp
Sorry if this didn't make sense, its early in the morning, but I swear I've not been smoking crack.
Any more questions, just ask away!
:thumbup:
