Stroppy Stuff, what do I need to get started.

G

garage_logician

Joined
Jul 9, 2013
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I have a TSPROF Kadet Pro with the TSPROF diamond stones. I wanted to add some strops to my kit but I am not sure what grit (or grits) to get. I need both the strop and the stroppy stuff.

I see that Gritomatic has the strop and the stroppy stuff together in a package with a Kangaroo leather strop. Is the kangaroo leather a good strop? Which grit or grits should i start with?

Thanks
-g
 
I have the same set up and use 9 micron applied to a standard leather strop to finish my blades. This results in a near mirror (to the naked eye) finish.
 
I never managed to get stropping right in my guided sharpeners. I'd just cut up the strop. Stones were easy; I don't know why I could not manage the strops.
 
UncleBoots said:
I never managed to get stropping right in my guided sharpeners. I'd just cut up the strop. Stones were easy; I don't know why I could not manage the strops.
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I am new to this so I could be wrong but I think that you have to limit your strokes to pulling across the knife and not pushing. If that makes any sense.
 
UncleBoots said:
Yeah, I knew that and I did that. Still managed to ruin strops consistently.
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The only thing I could think of is you are dragging the strop across the tip of the blade and this is slicing your strop.
Be careful when you come close to the tip. Don't go over too much and don't let the tip bite in your strop.
 
TheOne45 said:
The only thing I could think of is you are dragging the strop across the tip of the blade and this is slicing your strop.
Be careful when you come close to the tip. Don't go over too much and don't let the tip bite in your strop.
Click to expand...
No doubt you are correct. However, I've entirely moved on to hand stropping, so I'm no longer trying to acquire the skill.
 
I use a guided sharpening system and hand strop. I find hand stropping pretty easy once you do it a few times. I use a balsa paddle and set it on the table and sit in the chair. Try to get the strop closer to eye level then use a pushing away from me motion.

No microbevels. Would only make holding a consistent angle 20 times harder.

I use a 3 micron diamond paste on one strop and a .5 micron diamond spray on a second. It just depends on what I need. Fresh off the stones, one pass on 3 followed by a few on the .5. Used it a bit? I'll give it a couple on the .5. If it's not shaving easily after that it needs more aggressive removal and I'll give it some passes on the 3 then a couple on the. 5 and it's shaving again.

I'd recommend 2 strop grits. .5 is razor sharp, but sometimes. 5 won't bring it back, and 3 micron will bring it back pretty quickly then a quick pass on the .5. And sometimes. 5 is all you need and no need to waste time or steel on the larger grit.

I find it much easier and faster to "maintain" an edge like this, greatly stretching out how often I need to sharpen with actual stones. Before I never maintained at all. Once it got a little dull I just did a full sharpening
 
Another benefit of hand stropping is speed. I keep the two strops in a drawer by the door. It's very convenient and takes a minute or two and I'm just keeping my edge razor sharp. But not having to waste time setting up and clamping the knife in the system and all that is a big deal. I only want to go through all that when its too far gone and needs to actually be sharpened
 
thanks for all the replies everyone. I ended up getting materials to make my own hand strops and I also got a couple of the strops for the Kadet Pro too. After the cost of the sharpener, the stone, the accessories... etc. it seemed like the best choice was no choice at all. The strops were relatively inexpensive. (the hand strops cost me $3.50 for the maple backing board and $20 for 70" of 2" wide leather, good 8/10 oz vegetable tanned).
 
I'd like to pass on a tip I picked up here on DIY strops.

The leather we usually buy is not usually as flat as it could be. Take a known flat sanding block at least as wide as your strop and cover it with coarse (maybe 80 to 120 grit) AO sandpaper. Using extremely light pressure, start sanding the surface of the leather. You will be able to see the high- and low spots after a few passes, and the leather should sand near-perfectly flat pretty quickly.

I tested some older DIY strops that I hadn't flattened, and found they were only hitting on about 60% of their surface! The flattened leather did a much better job than the good quality leather as it came out of the box. I think the barely-sanded surface accepted abrasives a little more easily and evenly than the unsanded leather.
 
I have done and still do that on new strops. it opens up the leather and it collects more of whatever compound or emulsion your applying
 
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