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It’s easier for me to touch up a blade with a strop than a stone.

What’s the trick to reloading a leather strop.

Mine turn out like this...



On top the leather instead of embedded.

Flexxx strop. I heated the strop compound. Other wise it’s almost rock hard. “Herb’s Yellowstone” compound.

Dave.

I did a 3 year or so study of strop compounds. IME most did nothing but make shiny whatever finish was already on the blade. The by far the best results for actual burr elimination/edge refinement came from 9-10 oz tooled leather impregnated with a slurry of swarf from Aluminum Oxide Water Stones. Second, was smooth side loaded with swarf from Silicon Carbide Crystolon slurry, or Hand American or Jende diamond spray or Hand American Green. The smooth leather loaded best when rubbed/roughed with a green Scotch-Brite pad, then heated with an iron before and after 3 each loadings...

I just started playing with leather strops also.
I had some Semi Chrome so that is what I have been testing for now.
I used the slurry from my finest stones before.

A piece of thick leather has been glued to a 1/2" thick piece of oak.
If I put that in a micro wave for 15 seconds and heat it up, the Semi Chrome will get real
thin and you can rub it in. I am guessing that would work with other abrasive mediums too.

When I strop with medium pressure five strokes one direction then five the other it seems to be
doing a pretty good job.
One secret with strops is to not let the edge deteriorate toooooo far before touch up.

I am thinking I will do a two sided strop with a coarser medium on one side, but don't know what that will be.

I am thinking that I will have to refresh the leather from time to time. Maybe with some rubbing alcohol and scotch brite.

Tim

Was up in Valle Crucis at the Mast General Store a few months back. They have opened a pretty nice knife shop there and have all of the top brands as well as a lot of custom stuff. I asked the guy behind the counter his take on strops and he pointed to me a little man sitting on a stool. He took my ZT and stropped on a hard block of something that looked like it had been lying in a ditch for a few years. He was shaving ribbons off his crusty thumbnail when he was finished. He said the secret was to run it at about 10 to 15 degrees and never let the knife come off the strop. It works for me.

Turned out the guy had his PhD in physics and taught at App state.

I have a Platinum Stone given to me by a local in Goodnews Village AK.
It is what they use to keep their ulus sharp.
This stone is a virgin, as it has not been used and have a dished out side. I keep thinking I should wear this stone in
and use it to finish a sharpening or do a touch up with.
It is of a texture of soap stone.

I also have a piece of stone my father had for razor sharpening. I think he said it was petrified willow. I better
dig that out and see how it works for touch ups.

Lots of different things that work for different people.

I have read - yeah I read it on the internet - that olive oil can refresh a strop. Haven't tried it yet, but it just passing it on - bon jour!

I like the flexxx strop brand strops.

Comes with black on one side. Green on the other.

After some reading, ordered some blue velvet powdered compound to try.

Ordered some heavy veg tanned leather off the eBay to make some strops.

Save yourself the trouble:

https://www.knivesplus.com/leather-sharpening-strop-white8.html

And yes, olive oil will refresh a strop a few times. Eventually they just have to be tossed.

David

Found some stuff at the local ACE hardware.



Goes on the leather better than the other stuff i tried.

What about the ones barbers use to strop their cut throats?

For several years I have been using CBN emulsion in different grits and it does an excellent job. The only thing that is harder than CBN is diamond.
I have 1 leather strop that is charged with 45 micron CBN that is used most ever day for every thing but mostly kitchen knives. I also have a strop made of a balsa wood board that measures about 1x3 x12 inches that has 1 micron on it. Balsa is an excellent strop.

The CBN is a Kenneth Schwartz product that I bought from Jende. The strops which have magnetic backs [for easy changing] came from Chef Knife To Go.

I just checked and Knives Ship Free also stock CBN.

Try it, CBN really works.

Regards

Not going to work well on a knife, too much give. Inflexible blades need the leather firmly attached to a hard backer, technique is a little different also.

David

Not true. A barbers Strop will work to keep the edge fresh. Its not intended to sharpen. I use a Barbers Strop always. All my blades are hair popping

I didn't say it wouldn't work, I said it wouldn't work well. A leather strop w/ a hard backer is superior for use on knives. You can argue all you want, you're wrong.

David

+1

My favorite pocket knives are old school Jacks with convex spear point blades.
A barber strop being more flexible is excellent for convex edges.

What do we know FieldGrade? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make a jackass drink!

LOL.....you're starting to sound like me when it comes to the fire'.

I use the slack belt on my belt sander for sharpening my convex axe blades as well because it (for the lack of a better discription) "wraps around" that curved edge.

Don't have the courage to take my pocket knives to the sander though so I use the old mouse pad/sand paper routine for resharpening and then hit em with a strop when they need a touch up. Convex edges might not be the sharpest but boy are they a work horse.

Absolutely.

Holy [bleep]...$25 for 2.5"x8" of 7ish oz leather glued to a piece of particle board with <$1 worth of Aluminum Oxide paste melted on!

My favorite strops are from 4 inch wide by 16 inch long by 30mm thick polished granite that I got 3 drops for free from a countertop installer. To the top 4"x16" surface I affixed a 10 oz rough cut saddle leather scrap from a tack shop for 4"x10" (bought 6 of them for $3) and hard felt (144"^2 for $2) for 4"x6".

Total cost: 3 4x16 30mm thick granite bases with 10 oz leather and hard felt faces for $5.

A load of any compound cited so far in this thread is a couple of $ max.

The leather part is for general honing/finishing.

The felt portion is for convexing,

Convex edges are rather easy to make extremely sharp when you have proper equipment.

David