why strop?

T

trains are bad

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Jan 29, 2004
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I've never stropped a knife in my life. Last night I shaved quite comfortably and effectively with my Delica, sharpened only on my regular Lansky on the 25* setting. So why strop?
 
trains are bad said:
I've never stropped a knife in my life. Last night I shaved quite comfortably and effectively with my Delica, sharpened only on my regular Lansky on the 25* setting. So why strop?
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Two reasons:
1. It will get it just that "extra" bit sharp.
2. Instead of going back every few weeks and sharpening, just strop it once a day, or at least a few times a week. It will keep it super sharp for a long long time.
-Kevin
 
stropping removes less material. You can do 100 sharpenings with a strop and remove less steel than one pass on your benchstone.
 
Stropping is easy and available. You can use your jeans, cardboard, rolled up newspaper, your belt or the palm of your hand (carefully). If you want a really polished edge nothing beats a leather strop charged with a polishing compound.
 
Stropping will provide a polished edge favoring push-cutting, as opposed to a 'toothier' non-polished edge more suitable for draw-cutting.

Stropping also tends to form a 'mini-convex' tapered edge, which some would argue tends to reduce the 'wedge' resistance of the shoulders of standard edge bevels.

Stropping is also an excellent edge-maintainance method for convex-ground blades.

When forming or repairing an edge with stones, interim polishing/stropping of the bevels is very useful in spotting your progress toward the edge. The mirror-polished areas contrast strongly with non-polished areas. I much prefer this method to the 'permanent marker pen' method.

Hope this helps!
 
I agree with Pendentive. When ever you sharpen on a stone you are removing steel from the blade thus you shorten the life of the blade. With regular stropping of the blade you enhance the life of the knife. The key is to not let the edge get dull. By using a grit compound on a leather stop or belt you are actually sharpening the edge with very little removal of steel from the edge.
 
The cheapest way would be to scrounge a piece of leather, a scrap of wood and some glue, and make your own. Otherwise, HandAmerican sells a great smooth 2-sided strop built out of lexan (a heavy, solid plastic) along with some CrO powder for $20. One side is for the powder and the other is specially treated leather to use by itself. I've got one and it's really good.
 
gud4u said:
Stropping will provide a polished edge favoring push-cutting, as opposed to a 'toothier' non-polished edge more suitable for draw-cutting.
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Exactly. I recently saw an interesting demonstration in which a stropped knive was able to perform several impressive bits of cutting, but had great difficulty with manila rope. The same knife was then rehoned on a bench stone, just a few swipes, but not re-stropped. It then had no trouble with the rope. Stropping removes the "micro-serrations," the "toothiness," that's necessary when cutting fiberous material such as manila rope.

The classic blade to strop is a razor. Hair not fiberous and shaving is a classic push-cut. So, stropping is the perfect thing for a razor.

For other knives, it may not be the best idea.
 
interesting. I'm happy leaving my work knife at 400grit. I cut tons of rope at work (marina). But there's always the non-work knives. I have leather but never found asource of compound.

And I thought one left strops hang-what's this about backed strops?
 
That's true what Gollnick said, but how many of us are cutting manila rope that often? If you cut rope all the time, your better off with a serrated edge or have a knife specificly for your rope cutting. Like I said before, stropping does extend the life of the blade. I'm not sure but I think the backed strops are placed on a flat surface in a horizonal position. I'm not familar with one, I use a belt clamped to my work bench. I also wanted mention that I make my knives geared toward big game hunters and with a convex grind and a stropped edge, they field dress and skin game superbly. A stropped edge makes cutting flesh easy.
 
Razorback - Knives said:
A stropped edge makes cutting flesh easy.
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I think all sharp edges do that job well. When I cut my leg open, my knife was sharpened with a Sharpmaker (no intentional convexing if any).

Also, you can strop at most every grit. If you're stropping with mylar film instead of leather, you can strop in an edge-leading manner instead of edge-trailing.

Trains are bad,

When sharpening a knife with a hanging strop, most folks apply a lot of pressure to the strop to pull it taught. Doing so reduces how much 'give' the strop has (so that if you hold you knife at a 6 degree angle, your effective edge isn't a 50 degree angle). Glueing or tacking a strop to a piece of whateva (wood, plastic, shale, fossilized platypus skull) is a safer and more practical way to do the same thing (no worrying about pulling the strop out of whatever it's tied to and no need to find something with which to anchor your strop). You can buy buffing compound at most hardware stores or valve grinding compound at some of the better automotive parts stores. Most of us end up buying green honing compound from www.leevalley.com, but that's by no means an imperative. Some folks get great results using a strop without any compound.
 
"backed strop"


70m0350s2.jpg


Found at: Lee Valley Tools - Leather Hand Strop

This is by far the easiest route to take. In fact, you can buy the strop and compound together. Easy to set up, easy to use.

You're gonna kick yourself for not trying it earlier when you see how easy it is to maintain your edge.


You can have polished, coarse edges, btw.

All edges are coarse/toothy - just look at it under 20x magnification. All edges have some degree of polish - that's what a stone does too.


If you want a knife that will do double duty, sharpen it at 220 grit (either stone or sandpaper) and then immediately strop it. You'll have to strop it like crazy, but you'll get a polished edge than can shave and can still cut rope good.
 
I use the Lee Valley wood backed strop with the green Veritas chromium oxide honing compound shown above in Daniel's image. It works great for "finishing off" my sharpening on a Sharpmaker. Removing the wire-edge is easy and produces a "hair-popping" edge. It also works well for regular "tuneups" on the edge without removing as much material as going back to the ceramic rods. IMO it is a great sharpening tool and low cost too.

David
 
OK, I'm convinced! I think I'll pick up the set that Pendative displayed in his post. Now, how about technique? Where can I get some good info on how to use the strop effectively?
 
What does stropping on jeans, hand, un finished leather do? There's no abrasive to wear the steel
 
how to get set up...and cheaply?
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There's a small town nearby that has a family owned (since the 1900's) shoe repair shop. Over the years, I've stopped in there a couple of times to ask for a long piece of scrap leather, and thus now own a couple of very nice (and very cheap) strops. ;)
 
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