What is the best common household material for stropping knives?

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maximus83

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I'm interested to hear what are the best everyday household materials to use for stropping, short of buying (or buying materials and making) a specialized strop, say a wood paddle with leather glued to it.

I've heard of all of the following being used for stropping:
* Couple layers of newspaper wrapped around a bench stone.
* Cardboard. I hear various approaches here with different ideas as to what works best: cereal boxes, heavy duty corrugated, etc.
* Canvas fabric.
* Something with a super smooth, hard flat surface: a ceramic cup, a piece of glass laid on a table, the edge of a car window, etc.

What is the best solution for stropping at home without buying more stuff, and WHY is your preferred solution the "best"?
 
I use all of the above as well as my jeans (my leg) also, I have a leather belt I use. a piece of smooth flat pine (2x4) with some "green" spray paint

I find the cardboard, jeans and leather belt work best as far as what is laying around.

Try cutting paper with your knife, then strop it on your jeans and "pop" BIG difference.
 
My brother has been using a piece of printer paper as a strop. He said that it works better than card board. He'll just lay the paper down on a flat hard surface. He will generally strop his chisels and carving knives two or three dozen times a day if he's working a fell day.
The other day I brought over my strops with polishing compound on them to show him whats up. He's impressed, which is saying something I think.

Are you looking to strop to remove the bur? or to polish the edge?
 
Just about any paper product will work. The ink in a regular newspaper has some abrasive qualities, and uncoated and coated papers have silica in the binder, mostly for whitening. I have come to really prefer newspaper as it doesn't seem to eliminate the toothy quality of my edges. A linen shirt laid over something firm should work too, but I haven't tried this yet - linen has a very high silica content.

Newspaper works well with the grease stick compounds too - when they load up you just throw it away, no need to clean it or condition it.
 
Shawn7656 said:
Glass sounds interesting. Would this work?
Click to expand...

It can do a great job realigning an edge. Smooth glass isn't very abrasive on modern steel, but the frosted edge of a car window might polish a little bit.

The more I fiddle around with different things, the more I'm discovering what's 'best' for stropping depends on the individual blade being stropped. Some blades will really pop after stropping on a cardboard box, but others not so much. Some steels won't have as many issues with burrs & wires, so unless stropping is actually abrading (polishing) the steel, it might not do much. And the degree of refinement of the edge will make a big difference in the effect of stropping. An edge that's not fully apexed in the first place won't likely benefit from stropping on anything but the most abrasive materials. On the other side of that coin, an edge that's really refined & thin (like a straight razor), will respond to even a few light passes on virtually anything. Some people even strop such edges on the palms of their hands.

Depending on the individual knife, I've had noticeable results from:

Wood
Leather
Cardboard (wide variation in abrasiveness of cardboard)
Paper (phonebook, newsprint, catalog/magazine, printer paper)
Denim (jeans)

I've also noticed you can 'steel' a blade on the spine of another knife. Did this the other day to 'flip' a wire edge on a blade I was sharpening. Worked great.
 
My strops are simply scrap leather from Tandy. I think it was $2 or so for several pieces. I use red and white polishing compound from Sears at less than $5 a piece.

Pretty cheap investment for something that does a great job at refining an already sharp edge.

Good Luck.
 
you should experiment with different types of cardboard
while cardboard from one box may not seem to work very well as a strop, cardboard from a different box may be more abrasive and produce a better result.
 
Balsa wood / paint sticks work well too. They take compound easily. I have to agree with earlier post that not everything works on every steel though. I mostly use old denim or canvas. I have some nice leather, but don't get the results I do with canvas. I think it depends on if you are heavy handed or not also. If you have a lite touch, any cotton fabric works well. If heavy hands try the paint sticks.
 
When using something like balsa wood, what is the basic stropping technique? I mean, what blade angle to hold, and how many passes do you typically need?
 
I've tried cardboard, my leather belt, denim, newspaper and other materials. I like newspaper. It seems to but a fine but toothy edge on an already sharp blade. Is that a contradiction?
 
maximus83 said:
When using something like balsa wood, what is the basic stropping technique? I mean, what blade angle to hold, and how many passes do you typically need?
Click to expand...

The technique is exactly the same as on leather. Edge-trailing stroke, and the correct angle is determined by the bevel angle. Keep the edge flush to the balsa. I've found it's easier to control angle on the balsa, as the firmer surface makes it easier to feel the bevel, and to feel if the edge is flush. Sometimes hard to do on leather, unless it's very firm.

As with any stropping, you should be able to see noticeable results in just a few passes, up to 10 - 20 if need be. But it could be much less (maybe 3 or less), if the edge is really prepared for it. If you feel the need to just keep stropping & stropping, chances are the edge wasn't fully finished on the stones. Keep each pass very slow & controlled, and check the edge frequently, after no more than maybe 3 passes per side.
 
Gunsnknives said:
I've tried cardboard, my leather belt, denim, newspaper and other materials. I like newspaper. It seems to but a fine but toothy edge on an already sharp blade. Is that a contradiction?
Click to expand...

I've taken a good close look at edges before and after a stropping with a lot of materials, including newspaper. Interesting thing about the newspaper it does a very good job polishing the high points and apex without smoothing out the grind patterns on your edge (one or two layers wrapped around a stone). It didn't visually change the grind pattern or depth of scratches, but there was a clearly noticeable difference in how much light was thrown back from the high spots right to the apex. This was after about 20 passes/side. If you like a bit of tooth, I haven't found a better way to finish an edge. Stropping with an applied abrasive, even a larger grit, smooths out your grind pattern esp at the apex. I've done final finishing and deburring on edges done with some very coarse stones. To work well coming off the really rough stones I just had to increase the number of layers to 4 or 5. Did a scary good job on an edge ground with a Norton 220 grit waterstone.
 
Heavy, that's an interesting tip. I've been wondering about that: the case where you just want a good performing edge, and don't necessarily need the beautifully POLISHED edge. I'm wondering what is the LEAST possible number of steps one could use to put a good durable and scary sharp edge on, provided that you don't care whether it's super polished. Sounds like you've got a system for doing that.
 
Bon Ami or toothpaste on your strop. Crest is very good. I used to
use it to bring a high polish to furniture and to rub out waterstains
on tabletops.

Bill
 
What I use is a leather belt and actually since it's pretty long, I actually put several different compounds on the same belt.
When I'm done on a stone I'll strop my edge up in the following order similar to going up higher grits like stones ;
Baking soda
Baking soda mixed with toothpaste
Toothpaste
Bare leather

I'm not sure if it really works like stones in that baking soda is sort of the "Coarse" with bare leather being the "Fine",
but doing it this way seems to work much better in this particular order instead of just using one compound.
 
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