Recommendation? Stropping questions....

[AxeGekko]

I currently touch u p and light sharpen on a Sharpmaker. But for maintaining, lately i have felt my stropping (80% technique / 20% strop/compound) has not been doing anything to my edc knives. I currently have a the BHQ FlexCut w their gold compound. I'm looking at getting the standard dual side from DLT w black and green compound.

• they offer white, green, and black....I think i'm going with green/black. Is that good enough?
• any other strop recommendations outside of DLT standard dual side?
  
• It has a rough side and smooth side, which side takes which compound?
  
• does anyone know of any good YouTube's on technique?

 

[Eversion]

Late response, just saw this. Apologies.

I just use a strop with green compound on both the rough and smooth sides. I use the rough side for toothy steels like D2 and S110V, and the smooth for pretty much everything else.

The main purpose of the strop is to effectively pull the burr off the edge, the compound is just an added bonus to lightly polish the apex. Outdoors55 has some good tutorials about sharpening and stropping.

Green compound is quite fine and should work well as a last step off of a sharpmaker, which finishes with quite fine grit. Getting into the different compound grits is more for advanced sharpeners. Green is good for pretty much everything otherwise.

If you're not getting good results, and you're sure you've apexed on the stones, you're probably overdoing it with the strop.

Stropping at an angle steeper than what you sharpened with, or pressing too hard, or making too many passes, will round over the sharp apex you just worked to make. Strop at an angle just slightly shallow of the angle you sharpened at, apply little pressure, and stop when the burr is gone.

Hope that helps.

 

[AxeGekko]

Late response, just saw this. Apologies.

I just use a strop with green compound on both the rough and smooth sides. I use the rough side for toothy steels like D2 and S110V, and the smooth for pretty much everything else.

The main purpose of the strop is to effectively pull the burr off the edge, the compound is just an added bonus to lightly polish the apex. Outdoors55 has some good tutorials about sharpening and stropping.

Green compound is quite fine and should work well as a last step off of a sharpmaker, which finishes with quite fine grit. Getting into the different compound grits is more for advanced sharpeners. Green is good for pretty much everything otherwise.

If you're not getting good results, and you're sure you've apexed on the stones, you're probably overdoing it with the strop.

Stropping at an angle steeper than what you sharpened with, or pressing too hard, or making too many passes, will round over the sharp apex you just worked to make. Strop at an angle just slightly shallow of the angle you sharpened at, apply little pressure, and stop when the burr is gone.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the response! I actually just jumped in to the deep end and got my first free hand stone, DMT Fine, and a new strop, a Beavercraft with their green compound (which they say is 5-7 micron). Actually got it from OUTDOORS55 most sharpening recent YT tutorial. Got a real good edge for my first time. I'll prob get a Extra Fine and some other lower micron compound.

 

[Eversion]

Well that sure is a coincidence, that's very similar to what I use. Although I don't freehand cuz I'm bad at it lol.

 

[Barmaley]

I just use a strop with green compound on both the rough and smooth sides. I use the rough side for toothy steels like D2 and S110V, and the smooth for pretty much everything else.

I thought that D2 and S110V are very hard steels, will green compound which I heard is soft be able to cut those?

 

[Eversion]

I thought that D2 and S110V are very hard steels, will green compound which I heard is soft be able to cut those?

I can still get hair popping sharp off green compound with it, but it's more about the leather pulling off the burr. You are right in that S110V is largely unphased by the compound, it being very, very abrasive resistant. You do have to treat it with more attention with stropping. D2 still strops up fairly easily, although not as easy as something like 154CM or most common tool steels.

 

[Barmaley]

I can still get hair popping sharp off green compound with it, but it's more about the leather pulling off the burr.

Do you mean the leather doing the work instead of compound? I understand that the leather has some minerals in it, but is not it much softer than compound?

 

[Eversion]

Do you mean the leather doing the work instead of compound? I understand that the leather has some minerals in it, but is not it much softer than compound?

It's more about the forces going on than abrasion. The sharp, curly burr snags in the leather, and pulling the blade through either pulls that thin bit of metal off or straightens it out.
The compound usually works great for giving the edge a little bit of a polishing along the way, but the leather interacting with the burr does most of the work. Stuff like S110V is harder to strop because the compound (unless it's diamond compound) doesn't give you a whole lot extra, but it's still doable.

 

[ScottsBad]

It's more about the forces going on than abrasion. The sharp, curly burr snags in the leather, and pulling the blade through either pulls that thin bit of metal off or straightens it out.
The compound usually works great for giving the edge a little bit of a polishing along the way, but the leather interacting with the burr does most of the work. Stuff like S110V is harder to strop because the compound (unless it's diamond compound) doesn't give you a whole lot extra, but it's still doable.

Interesting that you are implying that the compound treated strop is primarily useful for removing a burr. Sure, a strop works very well for that, but I use the strop mainly to maintain the edges of my frequently used blades.

I'm talking about 3V right now; After I get a blade sharp using sandpaper, grinder, whatever....I strop it to very sharp. I try not to let the blade get dull and I strop it to maintain sharpness. That way I don't have to go to heavier abrasive often.

It is true that a blade can be over stropped and the apex can be rounded. I've done it lots of times.

BTW - the thicker the leather of the strop, the more convex the edge will be. I found out it is better not to apply a lot of pressure on the strop.

 

[Eversion]

Interesting that you are implying that the compound treated strop is primarily useful for removing a burr. Sure, a strop works very well for that, but I use the strop mainly to maintain the edges of my frequently used blades.

I'm talking about 3V right now; After I get a blade sharp using sandpaper, grinder, whatever....I strop it to very sharp. I try not to let the blade get dull and I strop it to maintain sharpness. That way I don't have to go to heavier abrasive often.

It is true that a blade can be over stropped and the apex can be rounded. I've done it lots of times.

BTW - the thicker the leather of the strop, the more convex the edge will be. I found out it is better not to apply a lot of pressure on the strop.

Actually you bring up a good point in that I thought this was a sharpening thread, but I now realize I've misread the original post lol, my bad.

For maintaining, absolutely, a grittier compound will make quicker work of it. At this point, the compound is doing most of the work, and the leather may just help to straighten the edge.

 

[ScottsBad]

I don't know if I answered your questions.

To start, just buy a single sided strop and green compound, like the Knives Plus strop. It is pre-impregnated with green compound and makes it so much easier to get started I recommend the larger one. It is expensive, but the time you save and the results are worth the extra cost IMHO.
https://www.knivesplus.com/searchre...4878a88250d5&search_field=leather+strop+block

I also have a DLT double sided strop, it is a great quality strop. I use diamond like emulsion (CBN) on one side and nothing on the other (I only use one side right now). I don't often use the CBN strop as I rarely need the edge that fine.

I've found that I prefer single sided strops so that I don't get cross contamination from one side to the other.

Generally, I find that for what I do (camping, cutting meat, wood, paracord, etc.) the green compound gives me a plenty sharp edge. I have some black compound but I haven't needed it.

For info on stropping, go to Google and type in; Knife Strop Video