Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Strop questions

I have a few knives that have seen use and are sharp but dont have that crazy razor edge that they had when new. I have a lanski but think maybe a strop would be a better way to get them back to that razor edge they once had.

Can anyone educate me on what to get, where to get it and the proper way to use it?

Seems like I heard that they improve with use and that a used barber strap is ideal. Is this true?

Thanks

Strop... Check out stropman.com for strops and compounds.

Thanks for pointing out the spelling! I will check that link.

Lansky does make a strop thing for their system. I picked one up at Cabelas. Does a good job for what it is.

Just use a strip of leather laced with either Semi Chrome or the dross off of the finest stone you use sharpening.
Gets them to a final shaving sharp and you can touch them up a couple times with the strop and go back to cutting.

I bought my strop from these folks. Two sided, I use black course compound on one side and green fine on the other.

With a proper knife edge in place I use the strop for an occasional "tune up".

I buy strop compound from Stropman, but I get my strops from Flexxx. I like the guy, like his products.
One thing that I do like a lot, but don't see much about, is a length of heavy, tanned, finished leather, as a final strop. I use a piece of an old black dress belt to put that finishing touch on a blade.

http://www.flexstrops.com/

Everyone has their way of doing things or opinion and this is mine. Unless you are dealing with convex edges, what you want is a very hard substrate for your strop. This is going to help prevent your rounding the apex of your edge and destroying what you achieved with your stone sharpening....which is easy to do on something soft like leather unless you are really careful. More than one guy has created a beautiful, highly polished, dull edge with a loaded strop.

I suggest you take a piece of printer paper or newspaper and wrap it and hold it TIGHTLY around a sharpening stone or glue it to a block of scrap wood or even a paint stirring stick. Get some green buffing compound from Lowes or where ever and rub it on the paper. Strop on that. After a few uses when the paper gets loaded toss it and start over. Some people use a clean piece of paper or newspaper with no compound for a finisher. When I used to strop, I got better results this way and I think this is better than the typical store bought or home made strops and as a bonus costs practically nothing....its a Murray Carter trick.

Unless you are working with convex edges, a barber strop on anything that "gives" is a bad idea and is liable to frustrate the hell out of you. Forget the image of a barber going to town on a razor strop with rapid back and forth strokes....he is convexing a thin, acute angled razor blade....you want slow and deliberate with VERY light pressure. The idea is you are refining the edge on a microscopic level, removing tiny burrs from an already very sharp knife. You are not setting the edge which should have been done on the stone. Don't over do it. A few strokes a side should be enough.

All that said, if you are not getting "crazy razor edges" on your stone setup be it jig or free hand something is amiss and you need to figure out what it is. The usual culprits are failure to completely apex the edge or leaving burrs AKA wire edges. Over the years I have come to believe that stropping is an effective crutch for not so great work on your stones. It helps sometimes but is not ideal. Lots of people do it though and you have to find out what works for you.

I use green compound

Ditto

A friend of mine uses valve grinding compound from auto parts place on a old piece of leather glued to a wooden dowel. I use the filament out of a high pressure sodium light bulb. I have a couple of them. Pm me your address and I will send you one. It will sharpen a fairly sharp knife to a ball shaving razors edges.

I like a toothy edge. Lot of times on my hunting knives I use valve grinding compound on a wore out diamond lap.