Recommendation? What leather for a strop

You don't need to use diamond to sharpen ZDP, but it can make it significantly easier especially if you're doing a re-profile. Then again, if the edge is not badly damaged and you're not changing the angle of the bevels I don't think it's terribly difficult. I just sharpened my ZDP-189 Delica freehand on the Spyderco medium, fine, and ultra-fine ceramic bench stones yesterday and didn't run into any trouble. It's now extremely sharp and I think I spent all of 15 minutes doing the sharpening.

If I were re-profiling or doing repair of a damaged edge, I'd use the diamond stones or a SiC bench stone to remove the material more rapidly. YMMV.
 
Bo-dacious said:
Obsessed: okay so when I read about a steel like zdp, it says its a nightmare to sharpen. If I don't need to use diamond, how do I sharpen it? What is difficult about sharpening high hardness/wear resistant steels?

Thanks,

Bo
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With ZDP-189, much like D2, it's more about the abundance and (with D2) the size of the chromium carbides, which can really slow down grinding using more conventional stones in aluminum oxide. They're still able to cut the carbides; but because there's so much of them in the steel, it just takes longer to do so. Using more aggressive stones like SiC or diamond just speeds up the work, and will also leave the edge cleaner in doing so, most of the time.

Simple touch-up sharpening of ZDP, after the major grinding is done, can still be relatively simpler using aluminum oxide, like ceramics. It's mainly in the heavy grinding jobs like thinning & rebevelling, where you'll appreciate using SiC or diamond on ZDP.
 
Okay thanks guys. I just sharpened my first high vanadium/hardness/wear resistance steel yesterday. I did my brothers s110v knife he made. I put the edge on with the SiC 120 stone and it very nicely push cut paper at that grit but it didn't shave. So I went to the resin bonded diamond stone (both on the edge pro) the 300 grit and I got it even sharper. It was very easy. I don't know why these blade steel reference pages say it's a nightmare to sharpen... Or is it just difficult in the high grits?

Thanks,

Bo
 
I have been told veg tanned horse butt leather is good to use for a strop and it is readily available on Ebay.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Just anything that's fairly tight-grained (no large gaps or furrows in the grain) and smooth. Don't necessarily need anything exceptionally hard either, like oak or whatever. Really nothing special, in other words. You just want something with a uniformly smooth surface that embeds compound easily. Most of the generic 'hardwood' (mystery imported wood) dowels found at Home Depot or wherever will meet that criteria pretty easily. Oak is nice, but it's grain is relatively open & coarse, and it also tends to get somewhat 'glassy' on the surface when used for stropping, because it's so hard. By comparison, basswood is still soft enough to avoid that glazing (glassy surface), but firm enough to avoid issues caused by compression in softer materials.

Basswood works well, simply because it meets the criteria above, AND because it just happens to be available in many craft/hobby stores in pre-cut sizes ideally suited for making strops. Same for balsa, although it's quite a bit softer and prone to more surface damage or deformation (compression, gouging, cutting, etc).
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Thanks for this info. So, way back when, I made a stop by gluing leather onto a large paint stirrer from home depot. Based on your info, I'm thinking that I can just use a paint stirrer and add some compound to make a decent strop.
 
Diemaker: I used the one that edge pro sells.

Tshows: ok thanks. I found some veg tanned cow hide a square foot for like $17 American. Not bad.

F308: that's cool. I made a nice strop I cut out the wood into a paddle shape 3x8" with a handle and I'm going to glue denim strips I cut out of old jeans to it.

Thanks guys,

Bo
 
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