Stropping question....

[Ron Sabbagh]

I have a leather strop. I am just learning how to use it. I was under the impression that when using a leather strop, I can just "strop the knife". Do I need to add any oil or lubricant?

My technique is to use a Sharpmaker to sharpen the blade and finish with a leather strop.

Thanks

 

[David Martin]

No, oil is needed. DM

 

[Ron Sabbagh]

No, oil is needed. DM

Thank you David!

 

[David Martin]

You're welcome. DM

 

[colin.p]

I made a strop from an old belt (smooth side up as there really was no rough side) and glued a length on each side of a (clean) paint stir stick. I always meant to get some stropping compound but it isn't easy to come by up here and so never bothered to.

I am able to sharpen all my knives using crock sticks and finishing with my bare strop. Seems sharp to me.

 

[Diemaker]

It depends on what you are stropping and what you hope to achieve. I generally only want to remove any remaining burrs so I don't want the strop to do much, I also generally stop at a 5-micron diamond stone so there isn't much burr. For anything short of "super" steels I prefer a bare leather strop. For my Maxamet blade, I like a little diamond on my strop. After Shawn at BBB said he gets his best Bess scores with a water carrier vs oil I have to agree that I like water best too, when applying an abrasive to my strop. I find an oil or cream carrier makes the leather more "sticky" causing more drag on the blade when stropping, causing more convexing of the apex.