What strop to use and good Youtube vids?

E

EMN

Joined
Oct 15, 2019
Messages
55
Hello All,

you may have seen me on the forum lately so I’m a newbie. I have some knives from an Ontario rat1 to a Hinderer Jurassic that’s on its way. I tell you so you know the range of knives I want to sharpen. I have a Spyderco sharpmaker and have been practicing with that may look into there diamond rods or maybe I’ll get a stone not sure yet. After watching some videos it looks like it’s a good idea to strop your knives after use I guess like rotating your tires keeps them in good shape. Any suggestions on what company and type of compound to use? Also any good videos I should watch?


Thank you

Eric
 
Stropping on leather is a crutch for those who need to improve their sharpening imo. For knives that is not razors. Leather by its very nature rounds over the edge. No matter how careful you are or how flat the leather is. So it can be good at removing burrs. But it does that by rounding your edge.
Now if you get yourself a piece of MDF or balsa wood and any kind of diamond paste, spray, emulsion, green or white or black compound, go to town. This is more of a sharpening action and can work quite well
 
Vicv said:
Stropping on leather is a crutch for those who need to improve their sharpening imo. For knives that is not razors. Leather by its very nature rounds over the edge. No matter how careful you are or how flat the leather is. So it can be good at removing burrs. But it does that by rounding your edge.
Now if you get yourself a piece of MDF or balsa wood and any kind of diamond paste, spray, emulsion, green or white or black compound, go to town. This is more of a sharpening action and can work quite well
Click to expand...

I work in the plywood lumber industry so I can get plenty of MDF. So In your opinion dont use leather use MDF with a compound to maintain your edge?
 
Yes in a sense. By all means try everything. Having your edge a bit rounded may be better in your use than the more coarse result from grinding a burr off with a stone. You have to find what works for you
 
What is a good, hard and thin stropping material, that can be cut to 1X6".
I use a guided sharpening, like Edge Pro, it's actually a Hapstone v6.
It should be something like 6mm thick.
 
Besides the reading above is there any other articles or videos that could be suggested?
 
leather is fine

You can get hair splitting edges on leather provided you do your sharpening properly

Just order one of the cheap double sided 6x2" paddle stop on ebay/aliexpress/amazon, should cost around 5$

And get the flexcut gold or lee valley green compound ... Or even the cheap green compound will work

Dont bother with the spyderco diamond just get the ruixin edge pro clone diamond rods off aliexpress, get a pair of the 400 grit and maybe the 80-120 grit for 8$ per pair

Elastic band those to the shapmaker rods

Thats all you need

Sharpness depends MUCH more on your skill than the exact stones and strop you use
 
Bearbreeder said:
leather is fine

You can get hair splitting edges on leather provided you do your sharpening properly

Just order one of the cheap double sided 6x2" paddle stop on ebay/aliexpress/amazon, should cost around 5$

And get the flexcut gold or lee valley green compound ... Or even the cheap green compound will work

Dont bother with the spyderco diamond just get the ruixin edge pro clone diamond rods off aliexpress, get a pair of the 400 grit and maybe the 80-120 grit for 8$ per pair

Elastic band those to the shapmaker rods

Thats all you need

Sharpness depends MUCH more on your skill than the exact stones and strop you use
Click to expand...


Thank you looks like I will be busy learning the next step. Lots a great information.
 
I used to strop on cut down strips of cereal box cardboard taped onto glass with Mother's mag & aluminum polish. Worked really well. You can strop on just about anything really.
 
H Haffner If it helps HomeDepot.com has a 0.25" thick 4 foot by 8 foot panel of "vinyl-laminated medium density fiberboard" -- you may be able to get smaller pieces in the store.
 
They almost always have half sheets and 1/4 sheets in bins.. Left overs from customer custom cuts.
 
EMN, good to see you here, hope the Jurassic arrives soon!

I haven't tried balsa with compound, but have pretty good experiences using leather strops with compound to bring knives to hair whittling sharp. Many dealers would sell leather strop 'paddle' so the choices are abundant. My 2 cents are not to 'press' the knife into the leather too hard while trying to maintain the correct bevel angle.
 
comis said:
EMN, good to see you here, hope the Jurassic arrives soon!

I haven't tried balsa with compound, but have pretty good experiences using leather strops with compound to bring knives to hair whittling sharp. Many dealers would sell leather strop 'paddle' so the choices are abundant. My 2 cents are not to 'press' the knife into the leather too hard while trying to maintain the correct bevel angle.
Click to expand...

Jurassic arrives tomorrow can’t wait. Thanks for sharing your experience taking it all in so much to learn and try. I have some inexpensive knives I will work on first.

I would like to thank everyone you never know what to expect going into a new experience and this has been rewarding.
 
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