What wood for strop?

M

Masterjuggler

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Dec 22, 2013
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You guys are probably thinking this has been asked to death, and it probably has, but the information has probably been spread out so much I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. If it has been answered already, just link me and I'll be happy.

So I've been sharpening my knives with the course through extra-fine DMT stones, using some off-brand "woodstock" green buffing compound on duck cloth on plywood. It's been working out pretty well, but I want to take the stropping to the next level, and I've pretty much figured out what I need. I'm getting the DMT dia-paste 3-pack, and I'm planning on putting it onto straight hardwood.

My problem comes in with the strop itself. I read that hardwood works better than balsa or leather for the DMT paste, but I've only ever seen it referred to as just "hardwood".

Does anyone have any preferences as to what wood works best for them? I can get most common hardwoods, but I'd like to stay away from any exotic woods that are harder to find.
 
I should preface this by saying I haven't tried stropping directly on hardwood yet, but based on what I know of hardwoods I think that you would want to look at is something like maple. It has a smooth grain that shouldn't collect the paste in the boundaries. You would probably want to avoid something like oak. It has a very distinct grain that would collect the paste.
 
Off hand I've heard of people using balsa, MDF (medium density fiberboard), and leather mostly. Though I don't use a strop yet, this is just what I run into that I've seen most people build strops out of. Nice thing about the first 2 options is their cheap so you can experiment with them and not invest too much money, as for leather it's cheap depending on what you use but if I recall correctly I think there was a certain way you were suppose to prep the leather. Another cheap option I've heard of people using is the paint stirring sticks, though it seems most people use a different approach unless money is tight to my understanding.

As for Balsa a quick search for Balsa sheets will bring up some options for you, they seem to be common at hobby stores from what I can judge online. MDF looks like it can be picked up at hardware stores. As for leather, there are a lot of options for that.

I think for a dia-paste video DMT put out they even used Balsa.
 
Anything uniformly smooth & fairly tight-grained will work just fine. In fact, it doesn't even have to be 'hardwood', per se. Some examples that I've tried, and all work quite well (in order of increasing hardness, more or less):

balsa
basswood (what I've been using lately)
mdf
maple

I"m sure something like poplar will work also; it has a very uniform grain to it. The poplar is usually available in convenient sizes for this at HD/Lowe's. Balsa & basswood can be found at hobby/craft outlets (got mine at Hobby Lobby), also cut in convenient dimensions for stropping.

MDF is very uniformly flat & smooth. Need to be careful in not getting it wet, because it'll swell and deform, and won't recover. I've never found MDF in very small sizes; it usually comes in sheets from 24" x 48" and up, in size. So it'll likely need to be cut to size, unless you can find a source of scraps in this material.

I've also used red oak (also found at HD/Lowe's in the same dimensioned sizes as the poplar), though the grain is relatively coarse, with more furrows/valleys in it. That's not necessarily a problem, but any compound applied that gets down into the furrows of the grain will be out of reach of your edges. This is why I generally prefer something with a tighter & smoother grain. Fewer irregularities in the surface of the wood will also minimize chances of digging in or catching a tip in the wood (I broke a very thin & pointy tip on a ZDP-189 blade, in an incident like this).


David
 
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I'd probably stick with balsa. You can use harder woods, but will run into some interesting outcomes perhaps depending on how much mobility your compound has. Fine grained woods will quickly polish themselves smooth(er) and loose some effectiveness. Hardwood (for this sort of thing I prefer oak) can actually be used to do grinding and sharpening if you use it like a lapping board/traditional "knife board".

This was my favorite method for a time, pre-Washboard. You can get some fantastic results.


[video=youtube;gfblDsTy-FY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfblDsTy-FY[/video]
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Anything uniformly smooth & fairly tight-grained will work just fine. In fact, it doesn't even have to be 'hardwood', per se. Some examples that I've tried, and all work quite well (in order of increasing hardness, more or less):

balsa
basswood (what I've been using lately)
mdf
maple

I"m sure something like poplar will work also; it has a very uniform grain to it. The poplar is usually available in convenient sizes for this at HD/Lowe's. Balsa & basswood can be found at hobby/craft outlets (got mine at Hobby Lobby), also cut in convenient dimensions for stropping.

MDF is very uniformly flat & smooth. Need to be careful in not getting it wet, because it'll swell and deform, and won't recover. I've never found MDF in very small sizes; it usually comes in sheets from 24" x 48" and up, in size. So it'll likely need to be cut to size, unless you can find a source of scraps in this material.

I've also used red oak (also found at HD/Lowe's in the same dimensioned sizes as the poplar), though the grain is relatively coarse, with more furrows/valleys in it. That's not necessarily a problem, but any compound applied that gets down into the furrows of the grain will be out of reach of your edges. This is why I generally prefer something with a tighter & smoother grain. Fewer irregularities in the surface of the wood will also minimize chances of digging in or catching a tip in the wood (I broke a very thin & pointy tip on a ZDP-189 blade, in an incident like this).


David
Click to expand...
Car audio shops will have a huge scrap bin of odd sized MDF pieces and they'll probably be happy to give it to you if you can stand the type of people that frequent there. Just a suggestion, stuff's always better when its free.
 
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