What's the benefit of using a strop?

C

CPettersen

Joined
May 13, 2003
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154
Greetings:
What is the benefit of using a lether stop? I have seen people suggest them but I dont fully understand them :confused: (or how to use them). I am using a Sharpmaker now, would my blades benefit from a strop?
 
The strop does two things, smooths the edge by removing those micro teeth that some people think are an indication of sharpness and slightly convexes the edge.

In a razor application tiny inconsistancies in the edge can cause the razor to catch and drag so removal is necessary, on the other hand in meat cutting the micro teeth act like saw teeth and enhance the cutting feel of the blade.

I strop all of my knives on a hard cardboard wheel instead of the traditional razor strop because it is faster and does the same job.
 
Hello CPetterson

Stropping is not, technically, sharpening your blade, though it will improve your blades cutting ability. It is used after sharpening to remove burrs, straighten & make more uniform the fine cutting edge of a blade. It is of little use on large, heavy blades.

Most blades can happily do without, though if you plan to shave with straight razor you do well to learn before you cut your face to ribbons.
Personally I don’t strop my blades, I have no need & have never tried, so cannot offer any decent ‘how-to’ advice.

However where I get a shave & a haircut the barber does routinely, & has done for 50+ years. He uses a wall hung leather strop for his straight razors- I have NEVER been cut & ALWAYS get an excellent close shave. Sorry I cant give you any better advice than seek out one of these ‘old-time’ barbers, get a shave, watch, learn, & ask about their stropping technique & tools.

Regards
FB
sicarii
 
It evens the edge to a very fine and very nice acute sharpness.
 
You can use a leather belt, a flat piece of pine or some other wood, even a flat rock or slab of some marble has been used. Lots of guys use their blue jeans as their daily strop. I personally feel like nothing works quite as well a leather one but I've used wood with equal results too. The thing is that it isn't the flat surface that does the cutting. It is the polish medium you use on the flat surface that does that. So it doesn't much matter what that flat surface is usually. Dab some flex cut gold polish compound or green rouge or whatever you prefer on that surface and it will polish the edge to keen razor sharpness over time.
 
I sharpen on either diamond stones or my Burr King :) .

I find the most useful thing about stropping is that it wipes the wire edge off after sharpening. After that, "stropping" is kind of like "sharpening" - depending on what setup you have and what technique you use, you can get a wide variety of results, both intentional and otherwise. :D Shaving edge, scary edge, spooky edge, working edge - you can strop to all of them, once you figure it out. At this point the only things I don't strop as a matter of course are axes and machetes, and even they benfit from it - it just doesn't tend to be worth it given the steel quality and rough use.

My quick n dirty these days is work to a wire edge on a 600 grit diamond stone, then use a flat leather strop rubbed with 'white diamond' buffing compound (which contains no diamond) to finish - when the wire edge is gone to the touch, it's done. Thick soft leather, or stiff hard leather, and heavy valve grinding compound, or a light jewelers compound like Zam, can give faster or slower results, finer or coarser, more convexed or flatter, etc.

Just before I moved I picked up a 2x72 strop belt for the Burr King - when I get the shop set back up I'm real interested in seeing how that works out. It's not the Hand American, it's the one Sheffield Knifemaker Supply sells, for about half the price.
 
Stropping inproves the cutting ability of the knife. Just depends on how sharp you want it to be. I have been using a regular barbar strap for 30 years to improve the edge on my knives. I didn't put anything on it when I started and just let the natural fibers of the leather do the honing. I used my boot when I was a teen ager because that was what the others did and it worked also. The amount of pressure you put on the stop will also have an effect on the outcome of the edge.
The reason I have a strop was that the barbar wouldn't let me use his because I might nick it. :)
 
Stropping simply polishes the edge. Most Americans who don't use waterstones, don't have stones that are fine enough to polish so the strop substitutes. Unfortunately, it also tends to dull the edge a tiny bit by rounding it over. If you can attach the strop to something hard and use it lightly it well benefit more from the polishing than it loses by the rounding. however. A better approach would be to acquire and use a Japanese finishing waterstone.
 
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