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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Thin leather for a strop.
- Thread starter Nogorn
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 6,642
You could always try a sheet of paper first, works better than you might think. Just wrap it around your benchstone.
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2009
- Messages
- 13,433
^^Sort of amazing, what simple paper can do when used on a firm backing. Used with compound, all you really need is a substrate that'll hold the compound fairly well.
My favorite strop these days is just a piece of scrap plywood with paper on one half of it's width, and a piece of an old cotton twill shirt I recently 'retired', on the other half. Both materials are lightly glued to the plywood, using some temporary adhesive (spray) that allows the material to be peeled off & replaced as needed. I use the same compound on both materials. The paper is some textured art/drawing paper that's pretty stiff/firm; used with the compound I've chosen, it leaves a little more 'bite' on an edge; also works a little more aggressively on somewhat more wear-resistant steels (154CM, ATS-34, VG-10, D2, etc). The cotton twill side, used with the same compound, tends to clean up and polish a little more. This side works very well (excellently) with simpler steels like 1095, Case's CV/420HC steels, Opinel's XC90 'Carbone' and others, though I still often use both sides in sequence (paper, then the fabric) for many of the steels I sharpen.
The combination of firm backing (plywood) and very thin & almost non-conformable substrate (paper, thin fabric) for the compound is what makes this work so well, producing very, very crisp edges.
I still occasionally use my leather belt (inside face, sueded) like a hanging strop, with green compound for quick on-the-go touch-ups of my 1095, CV, 420HC blades. This still works especially well on the 1095 and 420HC in particular, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I could easily live without using leather at all, for stropping. If a known-good piece is available and convenient, that's fine. Otherwise, it's not too difficult to get great results with other materials, many/most of which may cost nothing at all, save for the compound itself.
David
My favorite strop these days is just a piece of scrap plywood with paper on one half of it's width, and a piece of an old cotton twill shirt I recently 'retired', on the other half. Both materials are lightly glued to the plywood, using some temporary adhesive (spray) that allows the material to be peeled off & replaced as needed. I use the same compound on both materials. The paper is some textured art/drawing paper that's pretty stiff/firm; used with the compound I've chosen, it leaves a little more 'bite' on an edge; also works a little more aggressively on somewhat more wear-resistant steels (154CM, ATS-34, VG-10, D2, etc). The cotton twill side, used with the same compound, tends to clean up and polish a little more. This side works very well (excellently) with simpler steels like 1095, Case's CV/420HC steels, Opinel's XC90 'Carbone' and others, though I still often use both sides in sequence (paper, then the fabric) for many of the steels I sharpen.
The combination of firm backing (plywood) and very thin & almost non-conformable substrate (paper, thin fabric) for the compound is what makes this work so well, producing very, very crisp edges.
I still occasionally use my leather belt (inside face, sueded) like a hanging strop, with green compound for quick on-the-go touch-ups of my 1095, CV, 420HC blades. This still works especially well on the 1095 and 420HC in particular, but I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I could easily live without using leather at all, for stropping. If a known-good piece is available and convenient, that's fine. Otherwise, it's not too difficult to get great results with other materials, many/most of which may cost nothing at all, save for the compound itself.
David
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