Strops

I bought this one from a leather guy at a gun show in Dallas about 20 years ago for $50.

I just rub in some jeweler’s rouge on one side and leave the other side clean.

Dad ran a sharpening business on the side & made leather belts that he'd run in place of sanding belts on the belt grinders. A bit of jewlers rouge and a couple quick passes on a sharpened knife & it was razor sharp. I just have a strip of leather glued to a scrap of wood I use-nothing fancy.

Mine is a piece of wood (with handle) with leather bonded to both sides.
One side is loaded with green compound and other side is natural leather.
I strop my blades often and it seems the need to truly sharpen is WAY less.

The way it was explained to me is that steeling and stropping is more realigning than anything else.
This same person informed me that steeling and stropping…neither technique truly removes blade metal.
One can feel comfortable running a blade across a leather strop frequently without reducing blade longevity.

Stropping is, in its simplest form, a remedy to remove the remaining burr, no matter how microscopic, from the edge after the last honing stage.

Stropping with compound could be described as polishing and is in fact called this in some publications.

As a woodworker who uses a fair number of hand tools, I am pretty well versed in stropping. My first observation and advice is to consider never going finer than 1 micron with any compound loaded strop. This is usually the “green bar” but could be a 1 micron lapping paste as well.

Nearly anything can be used as a “dry strop. The jeans you are wearing, cardboard as has been mentioned, a strip of rubber even. This will usually knock off the burr by fatiguing the microscopic connection point between the burr and the blade edge. This, of course, will leave a very small jagged edge which is theoretically undesirable but may not matter depending on your uses.

Woodworking tools are best with a polished edge as they are used for cutting a denser and more durable material for longer times than your typical utility EDC. Either way though, it is ones own personal preference why and how one sharpens and to what level.

I prefer horse butt leather for my strops. I am a hobbyist leatherworker so I have a bunch of this around. I will charge the flesh side with compound and leave the hair side dry.

Here you see horse butt with green bar compound (1 micron), my paddle strop which is suede leather and kind of crappy but still works as a strop also with green compound, then some horse butt with 1 micron diamond lapping compound, then horse butt with .1 diamond lapping compound that I never use any more. The last is bare horse butt.

Blue Jays said:

The way it was explained to me is that steeling and stropping is more realigning than anything else.
This same person informed me that steeling and stropping…neither technique truly removes blade metal.
One can feel comfortable running a blade across a leather strop frequently without reducing blade longevity.

Click to expand...

Dry stropping won’t remove any material but if your using compound or lapping paste, especially 100 grit boron carbide lapping paste, I think you will notice some material removal.

@earlthegoat2, that was very informative and detailed post, thank you.
Would it be a reasonable practice to simply dry strop a typical folder every few days?
It seems like that would be a decent way to keep things cutting well AND preserving the blade?

Useful thread as stropping is something I would like to start up soon. I have a few knives that could use it, but aren't ready for a KME yet, and I'm pretty broke at the moment.

SteadyD said:

Hard to beat this for the money I would think.

https://www.bladehq.com/item--Flexcut-Knife-Strop-8-x-2-PW14--19815

Click to expand...

Yeah that would do.

I'm low tech when it comes to stropping. I use an old leather belt and Mother's scratch remover car polish. Works for me. Definitely makes a sharp blade just that much sharper.

I made a strop from an old leather belt. I glued it to a piece of wood with a handle. Rough side on one side and smooth side on reverse. It’s the one between the ceramic steel and the strop I bought.

swoter said:

I made a strop from an old leather belt. I glued it to a piece of wood with a handle. Rough side on one side and smooth side on reverse. It’s the one between the ceramic steel and the strop I bought.
View attachment 1058521

Click to expand...

Alright. What's in that sheath below the steel steel?

It’s a small handmade patch knife. Bought it years ago at a yard sale. It has a nice curve to the grip.

swoter said:

It’s a small handmade patch knife. Bought it years ago at a yard sale. It has a nice curve to the grip.

View attachment 1058604

Click to expand...

Knife and sheath are both too cool for school.

Me too. Works great with red rouge, not mirror finish, but sharp enough for my needs.

Nasty Canasta said:

I just have a strip of leather glued to a scrap of wood I use-nothing fancy.

Click to expand...

swoter said:

I made a strop from an old leather belt. I glued it to a piece of wood w

Click to expand...

My Case Doctor's Knife has stayed sharp for over a year. I use it for my lunch every weekday. I strop on my jeans after I eat lunch every day.

earlthegoat2 said:

Nearly anything can be used as a “dry strop. The jeans you are wearing,

Click to expand...

Blue Jays said:

@earlthegoat2, that was very informative and detailed post, thank you.
Would it be a reasonable practice to simply dry strop a typical folder every few days?
It seems like that would be a decent way to keep things cutting well AND preserving the blade?

Click to expand...

As a stropping and sharpening virgin I have a stupid question.

I have two knives with recurved blades and two hawk bill designs. None of the 4 need a thing done to them.............. yet. As I look at the strops on boards and paddles I envision the blade tip and the recurve points and the edge termination by the handle/scales of these knives creating excessive wear on the strop as they will form an arc pattern, and repeated stropping causing excessive wear on these points on the blades. Essentially it means the points/grind transitions, and blade edge near the handle will be stropped, but not the rest of the blade.

How to compensate?

Use a belt style? Seems tension on the belt would prevent this from working.

Strop on the edge? Seems this would be extremely uneven.

Find a strop with a high point in the middle, essentially a curved strop. This seems the best answer and I guess it leads to my question, do these exist, what is the proper terminology when describing them so I cna go find one, and if they don't exist, what do yall think about attaching belt style strop to an appropriately sized wooden post/dowel?

I'm cluseless on this aspect of it, but wanted some advice before I buy anything or start youtubeing.

I looked at the edge on one of my frequently used ZTs, and am seeing the edge needs a little care. Stropping 20CV should be a great way to learn right? LOL! It's a sheep's foot design so not a big deal, but I started thinking about these others.