Stropping

[Obsessed with Edges]

No reason at all to use leather if youre using compound unless you simply want to. Personally I think it's a waste of money when flat wood, denim, very flat, thin cardboard, linen, cotton sheets, printer paper, etc work very well, are much less expensive, easy to do yourself, and easier to maintain and/or replace when loaded up.

:thumbup:
I'm also of the belief that a strop of hard-backed denim or linen is usually going to work better anyway, than the average leather-on-wood strop, leaving edges much crisper and working more aggressively to boot. I have found leather to work at it's best when using it as a hanging (barber's style) strop. Used as such, the leather is less-prone to compression under the blade, because the strop as a whole will tend to deflect away under anything but light 'skimming' pressure. Very fine edges respond well to this type of stropping; and that's generally the only time I'll favor leather over other means, if used with compound. And that's not to say a similar hanging strop of linen/canvas couldn't do just as well, used in identical fashion. But if an old or 'repurposed' leather belt is available, I think that's the best way to make use of it.


David

 

[awestib]

Amen. As mentioned already, unless using a quality piece as a finale for a straight razor I cannot imagine needing to use leather. Paper has the added advantage of being used over a variety of backings to achieve varying levels of finish - its as easy to customize as it is to improvise, and just as easy to replace - no cleaning, no conditioning, and far more forgiving of pressure variation.

Edit to add: :thumbup: What Chris said ^ (caught me while posting)

Amen 2! I actually think that unless the leather is extremely well prepared, the springyness that is usually more pronounced than in any other medium, could be detrimental to the result unless the user really knows what's happening at the apex.

 

[winnerone23]

Wait.. So I don't Need a strop block!? Or leather, or.....

The more I have been reading, the more I learn. (Huh, imagine that) lol..

Yesterday I sharpened and a work bench knife, with a ceramic industrial bulb filament.

Today I used a box to stop a blade.
Now I'm reading, I don't even need a strop block and it may not even be the best way to go, for some of you..

So I went looking for my old belt..
While I was looking, I found this Samsonite date book..
It's not real leather, that I can tell, but it might be OK to glue to a block and use?

Or will that not really work?

I'm not after a mirrored edge, just after cleaning up the fine stone lines/marks.. (Kinda like the cardboard did today)

 

[bodog]

Wait.. So I don't Need a strop block!? Or leather, or.....

The more I have been reading, the more I learn. (Huh, imagine that) lol..

Yesterday I sharpened and a work bench knife, with a ceramic industrial bulb filament.

Today I used a box to stop a blade.
Now I'm reading, I don't even need a strop block and it may not even be the best way to go, for some of you..

So I went looking for my old belt..
While I was looking, I found this Samsonite date book..
It's not real leather, that I can tell, but it might be OK to glue to a block and use?

Or will that not really work?

I'm not after a mirrored edge, just after cleaning up the fine stone lines/marks.. (Kinda like the cardboard did today)

How much does it compress? Unless you're dealing with convex edges you probably want the least amount of compression as you can get. Seriously, I've used printer paper. As long as you don't have huge apex rolls and dents or huge nasty burrs you can too. You don't even need to glue it to anything unless the strop is really flexible, like cloth or something, or if the substrate wants to curl, like your planner. Don't glue it, anyway. Buy some of the light 3M spray that way you don't have to throw the whole setup away when the strop gets really loaded up. Just peel off the strop and replace it. Even that's a little bit of overkill if your strop is already flat and kind of stiff.

I use the really flat, thin cardboard that comes in button up shirts when they're new. Cut them to about 1.5 inches wide, maybe 8 inches long, and put just enough compound on there to very lightly coat the surface. It doesn't need to be super thick like you see on premade strops. Let the stuff dry for a day or two.

Leave an inch or two of clean surface on each side to hold on to.

You can then use the corner of a desk, a table, a block of wood, or whatever you have handy as long as it firmly backs the strop and you can get a full sweep of the edge.

You can also get a fairly coarse compound, put some on a piece of paper, fold it up, tuck it in a zip lock bag, and then tuck it in your wallet for when you're on the go and don't have your kit and need to touch up a dull blade. Sure beats trying to carry or find a suitable stone.

 

[winnerone23]

Thanks for the reply bodog.

This is a whole new side of sharpening, for me.
I've been hand sharpening for years and enjoy it.
Specially when a guy at work has a "butter" knife in his pocket and I hand out back to him after shaving a patch of hair off my arm.
Whether it be from the 1.25" x4" stone I carry, the side of a landscaping block, or a partially rusty hand rail on a piece of heavy equipment.

But reading and further learning, has put me into better stones, which is now leading me to strop a used knife, instead of waiting to sharpen it. (Kind of exciting!)

I'm going to continue reading and learning.
All knowledge welcomed!

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

Before getting a Washboard, I used same cardboard Bodog mentioned, with some Autosol on it. Worked great for 8Cr steel I used.
HeavyHanded refers this as paperboard.
I still keep some in a wallet for a quick touch up, and also use some endgrain paperboard strop (posted this sometime back).
The end grain was to simulate paper wheel .

Edit to add link to old post http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ermediate-stage-burrs?p=15391682#post15391682

 

[stitchawl]

I'm pretty surprised that the knife supply companies haven't started selling
"Premium Stropping Paper" pads,
2" wide x 8" long,
50 sheets in a genuine plastic holder,
Each one tested for performance before it goes out the door!

Am I getting cynical in my old age? LOL!


Stitchawl

 

[Lee48]

You can strop on anything. I frequently do it on my poly-cotton cargo pants and I can feel a difference. But I agree with those who recommend the Knives Plus Strop Block. It's cheap, convenient, ready to use and of consistent quality.

 

[jc57]

A great strop substrate is hard cardboard pallet edge protectors. I salvage these from pallets of boxes at work, and cut them to desired length. They are right angled so give you two stropping surfaces and you just lay them on the edge of a table or desk. Rub some compound on them using a stick from the hardware store and you have a nice, smooth, fairly unyielding stropping surface. Just toss out when the surface gets worn out or loaded up.

 

[HeavyHanded]

I'm pretty surprised that the knife supply companies haven't started selling
"Premium Stropping Paper" pads,
2" wide x 8" long,
50 sheets in a genuine plastic holder,
Each one tested for performance before it goes out the door!

Am I getting cynical in my old age? LOL!


Stitchawl

When I was still working wet-offset printing I had an idea I could put some abrasives into the roller train at the end of a run where we weren't saving the plates. Print it out on left over job stock before doing the wash-up, pad it up with a logo covering the entire surface.

"Paper Kutz!" the original abrasive honing paper you can't live without!

Said in jest, but I'm certain it would work, and deglaze the rollers at the same time. If it were printed on some nice linen-based writing paper you could flip it over for a final polish and write a letter to yourself about how awesome your edge is!

 

[Magnaminous_G]

You can strop on anything. I frequently do it on my poly-cotton cargo pants and I can feel a difference. But I agree with those who recommend the Knives Plus Strop Block. It's cheap, convenient, ready to use and of consistent quality.

This is the rub. The Strop Block has been my go-to strop for many years now, and I have never reloaded it and never cleaned it. The surface, as I write this post, is as pristine and green as the day I bought it. It is not magic or secret. It's just the quality of construction and the way they apply the compound. When it starts to load (turn black on the surface), you dip your finger in olive oil and rub fresh compound to the surface, and it is refreshed and ready to use again. All of the strops I have loaded myself have needed, at one point or another, to be scraped or otherwise cleaned, and reloaded. Good green compound, like Bark River for example, comes in a hard, waxy block. It's hard to work, it chalks up and clumps like drying clay. It separates from the strop if you try to apply it too thick. If you apply it thin, it eventually needs to be replaced.

With the Strop Block, the compound stays on the strop and doesn't come off. It isn't magic or some big secret -- it's just the way they load it, which you could replicate yourself because KnivesPlus explains the entire process on their website (see below). But I'm happy to pay someone $23 to do it for me because it's a little more involving than rubbing a block of green compound on leather. Plus it's a high-quality, well-made strop, even without the pre-loaded compound, and will probably last a lifetime for the average knife sharpener. I've had mine for years and used it on hundreds of knives. And I spent more than $23 eating at Buffalo Wild Wings Thursday night. I'll let Knives Plus explain their process better than I could (below). It's just a different loading process, but one I personally don't feel is worth doing myself, and it's what makes the Strop Block different from any other strop you can buy. That's why I highly recommend it.

"Chaps are the soft leather that Cowboys wear over their Levi's to keep the Mesquite bush thorns and prickly pear cactus from eating their legs up. It's soft but tough.
We use contact cement to glue this leather down to a 2 1/2" X 8" (approximately) particle board base. When the glue is dry, we raise the leather's nap by scraping with a razor blade to allow the polish to penetrate the leather and give it a "bite" when used.
Next, we melt down a high chrome rouge in olive oil until it is the consistency of thick vasoline. We smear and work this preparation into the leather surface with a hard rolled shop rag until the surface of the strop is thoroughly saturated and coated. Then we let the polish sink in and set for two days under low heat.
Finally, we rescrape the surface of the strop to remove excess polish and reset the nap. We run the edges of the base on a Burr King grinder to smooth and round the sides for comfortable use, and remove the green polish that gets on everything.
Remember these strops are hand made and are not the prettiest things in the world. They are also subject to the availability of the right piece of chap leather, and making them depends on what materials are available.
We use particle board base material. Width may vary from to 2"-2 1/2" and length may vary from 7"-8". Leather color may vary from cream color to dark brown which will affect the color of the finished product. Each strop is hand checked for "nap and grab" before being packaged."