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

It's always interesting to read about those that feel that their time is free and judge others by the same standard.

David

It's always interesting to hear from those that are convinced that no matter what you can do they can do it better.

My strops are by FLEXX. I use compounds, White, Black, Green, from Stropman. Robert, the owner of that outfit died last year, and the business was closed. I still have enough compound for the rest of my life though.
Bear in mind that stropping tends to not only deburr the blade, but convex it. You can over do stropping if you are not careful.

Read in FB it’s be reopened by two brothers in the Brandon ,MS area. StropBros.

You provided the evidence for your inferior edges, not me...

Curious, when you you use your mouse pad and sand paper do you attach them to your flexible leather strop or do you lay them on a surface that provides a hard backer?

You are working over time to get offended in this thread, while easy answers are provided that might make you change your mind about how sharp a convex edge can be.

Speaking of leading a horse to water...

Carry on...

David

For stropping, I use large (2"x8"x12") basswood blocks that I have sanded flat, and impregnated with diamond past in 9 micron, 6 micron, 3 micron, 1 micron, and 0.5 micron grits. I use basswood, rather than a softer material, specifically to minimizing apex convexing. I use these after honing the blade with diamond hones and a Buck Honemaster to maintain the angle. Stropping is done freehand by feel. With this system, I can get a blade hair-whittling sharp.


Elmax at RH 61+ after being finished on the 0.5 micron strop

Agreed, it's one of the most effective ways to get a bevelled edge up to that level of sharpness. I find myself somewhat lazy these days and usually just use the 6000 grit polish tapes on my edge pro then swap to my 0.5 micron cbn maple strop.

For convex edges I switch from my 7000 grit sand paper to the knives plus white compound strop, then a 0.5 micron cbn suede strop.

Interestingly, I have experimented with the 0.5 micron CBN suede strop on my bevelled edges and it seems to work as well as the wood strop. I tell myself the minor convexing is strengthing the bevelled edge, but I would be hard pressed to prove that!

David

I, too, believe a tiny bit of convexing actually achieves a sharper blade than an apex with perfectly flat sides.

But, when using an angle guide to re-sharpen a blade on a hard surface, such as a diamond or ceramic plate , the less convexing the blade previously experienced, the less metal must be removed to get the blade sharp again.

Accordingly, I aim for some but not too much convexing, thus the basswoood strops.

JMHO, and there is more than one way to skin the cat.

Can't disagree with that. Mainly played w/ it on the pocket knives that don't see much hard use, a little stropping keeps them sharp mostly. I'll see if I notice any difference next time one of them needs to be reprofiled.

David

Unless dealing with convex edges where you want a soft surface, a good way I have found to strop is to simply wrap a piece of newspaper or copy paper around a sharpening stone. You can charge the paper with compound if you want, but paper like leather has natural abrasive properties. Then when finished, you simply throw the paper away and you don't ever have to clean or replace a real strop and its going to be more forgiving because you won't be able to round off your apex by pressing down too hard.

Have you used this technique successfully with the newer higher alloy steels like CPM S30V, S110V, M4, 390, Elmax, etc? I haven't found plain leather will accomplish much with these steels & I really need diamond/CBN compunds to finish in a timely fashion.

I have not tried the paper around a stone wor w/o compound.

David

1.) There are many of us here on this subforum who are REALLY into this stuff - makers, heat treaters, materials engineers, metallurgists, users of all types... While our "time" may not be "free", THIS is what we DO with our "free time"...

2.) You'd come across as a bit more knowledgeable if you spent just a bit more of the time you allocate to posting on knife fora to actually posting about knives. Maybe detailing the testing you've done to reach your conclusions rather than just attacking guys who REALLY know what they are talking about and some make a living doing it.

3.) Example, the comments below; what knives? Factory? Custom? Heat treat? Cuz it doesn't jive with most of the rest of us...



Honestly looking forward to the input...

The paper thingie will not work with high carbide steels.
CBN/Diamond is not necessary

.

You evidently have a lot more free time than I do to dumpster dive for scraps to make strops, not to mention the 3 year study on strop compounds! This knife sharpening is really hard!

You're telling me that you find CPM M4 more difficult to sharpen than S110V, M390 & Elmax, while having poorer edge retention? Perhaps it was your strop compound that was at fault, better commision a new study.

David

3.) Example, the comments below; what knives? Factory? Custom? Heat treat? Cuz it doesn't jive with most of the rest of us...


I don't know how to debate vapor...

Journeyman

Again, you seem to have more free time than I do. If you have a specific question or concern, state it. You want to throw out vague "it just doesn't jive with most of the rest of us" and then expect me to write a book,it ain't going to happen.

What doesn't jive to you exactly?

David

What knives do you own, and have tested, in the steels you listed?

What doesn't jive for you?

That's where you started, let's get that answered first.

David

I didn't start. You did. You made the statement above...

Which is Bull [bleep]...

Actually, ok, fair enough...let's start here:

Which is what leads to:

Sorry if I'm too stupid to miss what else you need to answer the question...

Yes, I did. I can back it up as well, you seem to be having a wee bit of a problem with that. Which is really surprising to me coming from a guy that can't afford $25 for a strop and has time for a 3 year study on strop compounds which concluded:




Please detail every blade, you used for your 3 year study - custom or factory? detail the heat treat? every strop used hand made or (whoops, never mind I know the answer to this one), every strop compound you used details or your techniques, etc.

Your experience just doesn't jive with my own...

REALLY looking forward to your further input!

David

You are.

David

You made the claims. Not me. I just want to learn from one so intelligent and experienced.
Maybe I can even get to the point I don't calculate the value by hour of my frickin" hobby.
I feel sorry for you and your anger.
Try not to let it consume you, snowflake...
Done up any animals with those knives?

Journeyman

You're an idiot trying to bait me into a long circular debate where you never state what your issue is.

Put in writing specifically what you disagree with and I'll adress it, otherwise GFY.




You're the puzzy that started crying about paying $25 for a strop, then explained how you dumptser dive for scraps to make yours. Generally folks that don't calculate the value of their hobby by the hour, well don't actually calculate the value by the hour, but here you are...




Clearly the only person you feel sorry for is yourself, and it's quite plain that it's you that's angry and getting consumed by it.



Yes.


Still anxiously awiting more details on the 3 year study of strop compounds!

David

Cat fight.

I am sure the OP is pleased with all this great info.

I just now realized you edited your posts after my last post and finally have stated what statement exactly is causing you such a fit. What specifically is upsetting you so badly?

Do you not believe that Elmax has equivalent edge retention or improved toughness (or both)? Do you own a Bark River knife in Elmax? Have you used a Bark River knife in Elmax? Did you have some horrible Bark River Elmax tragedy that's just too painful to talk about?

I've used knives in S110V and M390, I like the Bark River Elmax better. Exactly which part of that is "bull chit"?


If I posted stuff as stupid as this:



I would be very reluctant to throw stones at others. I notice you keep steering well clear of discussing that idiocy or actually stating any experience of your own while throwing a hissy fit and demanding my life story to judge my credibility.

That little gem from you tells me everything I need to know about your credibility!


Sorry OP, you got some good information prior to Journeyman's fit.



David

I thought they only had hissy fits in the main forums.

Did ya get er figured out?

I use what looks like a big green crayon on the rough side of a double sided 12 inch bench strop.

The compound i picked up at the ACE works pretty good. Easy to apply.

Got another piece of leather in today from eBay to make another and try some more stuff.

Just something to tinker with.

I like to touch up a blade after each use.

David, I do not own any of the steels you mention, just every day stuff. In your case, if your goal is to remove metal or polish you would have to charge the paper with whatever kind of compound you feel will abrade the steel you are working with.....the same stuff you are putting on leather I guess. The main idea with wrapping the paper around a stone is to create a hard flat substrate with no "give" to strop on if that is what you want.....not having to deal with a strop is secondary although I like that aspect of it as well. I have an 8x2 India stone that I will occasionally wrap a piece of newspaper around, "color" some green compound on it, and do a few edge trailing passes on it if I am having trouble getting rid of a stubborn burr.....and pitch it when I get finished.

Thanks!

David

why don't you cat fighters just pm each other privately and let the op and the rest of us hash ideas and experiences around without all the drama

Because this is 24hourcampfire, where you can't have your own opinion. You can't have a way that works for you, if it doesn't work for the other person.

Anyone strop to a mirror polish edge?

It’s impressive but I personally think a little bit toothy stays sharper works better , longer

I haven’t. Don’t have the patience.

Saw some pics on google from folks that did it. Usually with some apparatus. Wicked edge or something.

No there is no reason to and as VinceM said !

No need for the exclamation point. Just asking.

Actually that was a mistake. I don't know why that is there or the space either.

There is a maker on this thread I've bought from, and 3 other posters who've pm'd me for advice over the 15 years I've contributed to this forum, who haven't stepped forward for [bleep] here... So...I'm done... Sad

Why do you feel anyone needs to step up for you? You have done just fine on your own. You know what you are talking about. I don't see where you need back up.

Check your calendar monthly.
When there is a full moon strange stirrings inside can cause us to step out of (or maybe into) character and see which is sharper.
Our knives or our tongues.
I wouldn't share this if it was not for the internet.

You won't need to do a DOE to assimilate accurate data.
A Ratio Delay study will do fine in this case.

I always smile at these threads. Tends to be a lot of folks that get too distracted with sharpening to remember the purpose of a knife is to cut [bleep]. Sharpen the damned thing up, rinse lather repeat. I've built knives with damned near every steel mentioned throughout this thread and a dozen more and the worst of 'em heat treated properly, with good edge geometry will still cut [bleep] mighty fine. Just need to be sharpened more often. Usually sharpen easy as hell. Different folks have different ideas about "best'. Find the happy medium that works for ya between ease of sharpening, edge retention and toughness and carry on. By way of context, I was raised to use a strop to remove the wire and smooth/realign the edge, not remove or cut an edge on the steel. Each to his own. I wouldn't necessarily judge steel quality by commercial makers either. Heat treat standards are way to sloppy across that spectrum..

Lay into me all ya want, but I doubt I'll change as I trust my experience over your opinion...

This sums it up perfectly. Well said mtnman1

As I've stated before, if you have something to ask/debate, simply state it in a polite way. Pile the condescending commentary on and I'll hand it back to you.

David