Stropping recommendations for kitchen knives

D

David Tanner

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Apr 9, 2021
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Hello,

I am just starting out on a more active sharpening, honing and stropping regimen for my kitchen knives. I have knives of average quality, mostly Sabatier and Victorinox with some cheaper high-carbon stainless knives for the kids.

I just invested in a Work Sharp Ken Onion sharpener with the Blade Grinding Attachment. This is after years of grinding away too much steel on an old Chef's Choice 130. I upgraded my honing steel to a new 14" Dexter-Russell Butcher Steel and I'm looking to add a fine honing steel and possibly a very fine ceramic honing rod to my lineup.

I'm intrigued by what I hear about stropping as a best-practice daily edge maintenance routine. I ordered a paddle strop from Amazon along with some compound but I was very unimpressed with it, especially the compound. I think the paddle is too short for longer culinary knives and the compound, especially the white one, seems really poor. It coats the leather and crumbles away rather than suffusing it.

What are the stropping compound brands are recommended for sharpening ordinary kitchen knives? There doesn't seem to be any standard for particle size or even for colors. I read somewhere that the progression from coarse to fine is supposed to go "black, white, red, green," but this doesn't seem to be universally true.

Are Bark River bars respected as stropping compounds go? They seem to be widely mentioned here and in the other places on the internet where stropping is talked about.
 
I have always preferred to by diamond spray or compound rather than that crayon stuff - the particle sizes are more known and is on the label.
Although what I do more often is use a very fine stone instead of a loaded strop.
 
I don't strop my knives, I clean off the burr on the fine India stone. Some steeling, during hours of cutting, like meat cutters work them. DM
 
For kitchen knives I prefer to "steel" them on a bowl or coffee cup.

For a strop, a piece of paper loaded with compound wrapped around a dry bench stone or plate. Toss/recycle when it gets loaded.
 
For mainstream simple stainless kitchen knives, I figure 'simpler is better'.

I like finishing them on a Fine India stone, to set the initial working edge. After doing that, I just lay a piece of paper (printer paper, phonebook page) over the oiled stone to strop the burr away. This usually leaves the edge with the nice, aggressive bite I like - it sails through a sheet of phonebook paper effortlessly. I'll sometimes do some follow-up maintenance or refinement with a few very light passes on a medium ceramic (brown/grey Sharpmaker rods).

Down the road after that, I do most of the touch-ups on a polished kitchen steel, just to keep the edge aligned. Within limits, it also seems to work-harden the edge a little bit - so it seems to become stronger and less prone to rolling over a span of a few weeks of use. Past a certain point, the repeated realignment of the edge will weaken it though, and the edge becomes unstable - meaning it'll roll or fold very easily. That's my cue to take the edge back to the Fine India again and reset it, first by scrubbing off the weakened steel at the apex (lightly, vertically 'cutting into' the stone with the edge), then resetting the bevels again on the same stone.

I do use one inexpensive Farberware stainless santoku with an acutely thin & polished convex. I initially set that edge on something like the Fine India. But then I use a hard-backed denim strop loaded heavily with white rouge compound to ease & convex the shoulders of the bevels and polish it up to near-mirror. That knife is a joy to use on things like fruits & veggies. After doing that, I'll also use the polished kitchen steel to keep the edge aligned for awhile, until it eventually needs resetting on the Fine India.
 
Most professionals prefer the "unbreakable" Ceramic rods such as the MAC black, most home cooks prefer a steel honing rod and I recommend the Spyderco Gauntlet to both.

A strop is a finishing step and while it can help a dulled blade that is not really what it is best at. It works in limited capacity on very minor dulling. By the time you start to feel your kitchen knife need a honing its already far too dull for a strop to work on.
 
I have a bunch of Shuns in VG10 (VGMAX they call it) Damascus and they all react to the spyderco sharpmaker very well (the SG2 takes quite a bit more work).

That said, I occasionally strop them with the...
Hmm the name escapes me, its on amazon and made by beaver something lol. I dont even use the green compound they give for free just the black leather; works great!

That's how I do it, I'm sure everyone has their own ways.
 
Stropping is best at removing the foil edge you usually end up with. But light passes even on a 325 grit diamond plate will eliminate them to the point that they cut very well. I don't strop kitchen knives anymore.
 
rpttrsn said:
That's funny. I hope he cooks better then he
sharpens a knife.
Click to expand...
Surely that's a spoof. Funny if it is, sad if not.

I'm a non knife stropper except for a few final licks on bare denim to remove loose bits clinging to the apex.
But, I find it mandatory for a good straight razor shave.
 
Last edited:
beginners, dummies, or lazies can strop kitchen knives the way i do it: with loaded paint stirring sticks . the methpd is well documented on B/F .
 
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