Stropping a Blade

[Kevin G]

Every few months I usually will grab all the cutlery in the house along w/my own knives and sharpen them on my set of DMT "stones". Additionally I'll hit the wood handles and cutting boards w/mineral oil.
The other day while going thru this routine it occurred to me to research the process of stropping a blade. Don't really know much about it, as a kid recall barbers stropping straight razors. A quick search on the internet provided me w/lots of info.
I jury rigged a simple set up w/an old belt and applied some Flitz polish for a gentle abrasive. After about 10 passes on each side of the blade of my recently sharpened Buck pocket knife I was amazed. Have very little hair left on my right fore arm from repeatedly testing the blade.
Note strokes are done the reverse of sharpening, rather than cutting into the leather the blade edge is dragged across it.
Kevin

 

[bamabiker]

If you do leatherwork you will learn stropping.
I'm not good at it with some of my tools.
It will put a fine edge on a knife blade.

 

[kamloops67]

I've had pocket knives SHARPER than a razor with stropping on leather with jewelers' rouge
The kind of sharp that produces blood when the edge is tested against the thumb print lol lots of my buddies have learned that one
Makes the ground edge invisible and the blade shines like a new diamond

 

[finesse_r]

Having had a couple of rather unpleasant encounters with a leather strop when I was a misbehaving youth, I have been reluctant to renew any associations with a leather strop.

 

[rwsmith]

The wire edge.....

An extremely sharp blade can't support the last fraction of an inch of the edge and it tends to curl, creating a 'wire edge'. Stropping straightens out the curl to get rid of the wire edge.

 

[JayCeeNC]

I use one of these:

Strop Block

 

[Smith357]

I have on 12" section of old leather belt cemented to a 18" long 1x2 smooth side down and load the rough side with green buffing compound. It gets me very close to a mirror edge coming straight off a Hard Arkansas.

 

[Whitwabit]

found an old belt from an old barber in a auction .. not many knew what it was and less had a use for it .. picked it up for the minimum bid $1.00 ..

made a canvas belt to hang it around a door knob .. use it all the time ..

 

[snubbyfan]

I use a 1 1/2" wide hunk of leather belt cut off. Wipe on some white jewelers rouge and use it to strop my sharp pointy stuff. Leaves a sharp polished edge or a sharp pointy tip.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

Years ago I made one from an old belt and a 6" piece of 1x4.....Still use it today

 

[WhitleyStu]

I've been sharpening for friends and family since the early '70s. A few years ago I bought some faster sharpening devices which include a 1"x30" belt sander with a leather belt which is charged with white jeweler's rouge. Two passes on each side and the blade is hair popping sharp. The belt sander is available at Harbor Freight and the leather belts come from Lee Valley Tools. I mounted the sander on its back so the belt is moving away from me.

 

[Brian41]

My aunt in Ontario had a strop and kept it in a kitchen drawer. When my cousin or I got out of line she'd open the drawer and we'd shape up fast. Never did get the receiving end of it but did watch my cousin get his share once and it wasn't pretty either.

My wife and I have decorated the house with antiques and the half bath has old straight razors, shaving mugs and such. We also have a strop that has a nickel plated jig attached to it you would mount your straight razor in to be sharpened. Dealer we bought it from explained it was made for those that didn't know the proper angle to hold their razors on. I've never seen another like it.

 

[jubela#4]

I cut meat at a large grocery store on the side from my regular job. I've got a homemade strop made from an old leather belt charged with polishing compound that I use daily. I rarely have to put my knife on a stone, the strop takes off the wire edge and it's good to go.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Some people use cardboard and have had decent results.

 

[msinc]

I have been shaving with a straight razor for several years now. Razor strops all have a piece of canvas or firehose too. One alternative to leather that I have had very good results with is a nice thick slab of balsa wood. The thicker the better {like 1 inch would be ideal} but mine is 1/2" and it works fine. The theory is that the open grain balsa is soft enough to do a good job and the pores hold the polish way better than leather. I just set it on my granite counter top and strop away.

 

[Edmo]

I have found the "sharp" edges I can get with stones and ceramics enter a whole new world of sharp with a leather strop.

I generally don't use any polish on my strops, just leather. I have an ultra-fine Spyderco ceramic stone which gets it close and the leather take it to the finish.

What strops do I use? I have two... One is a 2" wide leather tool belt I found at Home Depot years ago and the other is a 1.5" leather belt I used to wear and have had for years.

I replaced the buckle with 550 cord and loop it over something solid and pull it tight. The best results I've had have been with the inside unfinished side of the leather, carefully drawing the edge backwards over the leather.

With some practice you can easily get the edge scary-sharp. After using the knife, I can generally bring back the edge with a few minutes on the leather. If I used the blade hard it may need the ultra-fine stone and then the leather.

Edmo

 

[shouldazagged]

I've owned several Bark River knives and still have a couple (gave the rest to my son and his boys). Mine have all been cryo-treated A-2 steel, convex ground to fiendishly sharp. The convex edges rarely need work and are very durable in use; but they can be stropped back to sharp on a piece of corrugated cardboard, a leather belt, or even the leg of my jeans, believe it or not. A good leather strop would do wonderful things if they seriously needed to be realigned, but I haven't encountered that situation so far.