Newspaper equals ...?

Hi guys,

I finished my knives on chromium oxide on leather for quite some time and was very pleased with the results. A few weeks back I saw the Carter videos on youtube and his finishing on newspaper. Intrigued, I tried it myself. And woah, what a nice effect. With my chromium oxide, the knives were very sharp and moderate aggressive, but with newspaper it was just a scary aggressive edge. I like the newspaper edge a lot more for kitchen knives to be frank.

My question therefore, which compound and which gritsize produces a result like a newspaper?

i should try this...

SeanRogerPierce said:

Hi guys,

I finished my knives on chromium oxide on leather for quite some time and was very pleased with the results. A few weeks back I saw the Carter videos on youtube and his finishing on newspaper. Intrigued, I tried it myself. And woah, what a nice effect. With my chromium oxide, the knives were very sharp and moderate aggressive, but with newspaper it was just a scary aggressive edge. I like the newspaper edge a lot more for kitchen knives to be frank.

My question therefore, which compound and which gritsize produces a result like a newspaper?

Click to expand...

I'm curious, if you want to have an edge like the newspaper stropped edge why not just strop on newspaper? I would assume stopping at a lower grit (2k?) and then light stropping would do the same thing.

Andrew H said:

I'm curious, if you want to have an edge like the newspaper stropped edge why not just strop on newspaper? I would assume stopping at a lower grit (2k?) and then light stropping would do the same thing.

Click to expand...

I like nice tools. Newspaper, as effective as it is, is just something improvised. I would like something, that could accompany my existing strops.



Stopping at low grit and then strop produces an aggressive edge yes, but it is also course, not very refined. Working with that edge isn't quite the fun as with the full progression and then newspaper stropping.

I don't think you can get the same effect with anything else. The reason newspaper does what it does is because of silica and I am not aware of anyone selling silica powder, gel, crayon or what not. Theres nothing wrong with using newspaper, I do it all the time to deburr and finish some carbon knives.

For those who strop on newspaper, how do you actually do it? Just lay a sheet over the stone? I tried this and it didn't lay flat and just made a hell of a mess, it sort of shriveled up

I just wrap the stone in the paper and place it back on the stoneholder.

Carter just rips a piece of newspaper a bit larger than the stone and lays it on the wet stone he has been using. The paper gets wet and sticks, he flattens it out a bit, and strops.

SeanRogerPierce said:

I just wrap the stone in the paper and place it back on the stoneholder.

Click to expand...

i do this only with the back of my DMT

I got the impression the active component is black ink.

I love the newspaper strop. I bought some balsa wood for a strop back a while ago when everyone was talking about it here, but I never bought the diamond spray and it just sat on the shelf. So I decided a few weeks ago to wrap the balsa wood with the newspaper and I love it. I haven't touched my leather strop for quite a while.

-M

I've been using the card stock from the back of a legal paper pad, with some 1 micron diamond spray.... best working strop I've used thus far.> Tried leathers, felt, balsa, different compounds, etc...

Also a fan of dry newspaper. Quick, easy and effective.

All these paper strops, I was informed by a wood worker, have silica crystals imbedded in them and that's what makes them work. I never heard of the black ink component but I am interested in hearing the theory behind it. He also told me balsa wood to be a good medium for sharpening tools that aren't round. The reason is they could easily carve the shape of the instrument into the balsa and load it with an abrasive, I've never tried balsa so I can't comment but for some reason I find it unappealing. Newspaper and leather is the way to go for me, leather in all sorts of styles some for loading and some plain. Newspaper and CROX works great too! I like about ten sheets to have some give wrap on stone load and your ready to go.

Someone a while back mentioned that using the part of the newpaper that has the color, sort of glossy, pictures on it works best. Haven't tried it myself yet but does anyone have any input on this?

Seems newspaper is one of a kind and I guess I close my search for a substitude compound and just stick with it.

Wrappin the DMT is a pretty good idea. I'm going to have to give that a try over the weekend.

I've read of some people using a rolled up newpaper but I haven't tried that yet. It seems that approach would require a tight roll to keep the edge from being rolled out.

Newspaper is a bit rough, but not as rough as cardboard. Box type cardboard is an edge killer because it usually has a bunch of junk trapped in the corrugation. As for the black ink, I'm not sure how that would help. The solids do stay on top of the paper. That is why your fingers get black. Most ink used on newsprint today is soy based. I have heard tell that some people use laser printer paper for their final stropping.

tkern said:

Someone a while back mentioned that using the part of the newpaper that has the color, sort of glossy, pictures on it works best. Haven't tried it myself yet but does anyone have any input on this?

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The regular color pages of a newspaper are no different than the black and white ones. They just use 4 different plates to print the page, one for each primary color and one for black, so there is more ink on the page. The shiny stuff that you may get as an advertising insert or weekly magazine in the paper are "heat set". It is a different kind of paper, smoother and usually thinner and the shiny ink is "hardened" using UV light or heat.

I forgot all my knives but one today so experimented a little with stropping on cardboard. I used pretty light thin stuff, not the brown corrugated one. The edge was very toothy which was awesome for some things, but not others. I think it was a little too toothy and I felt a little resistance cutting some things which was quite undesirable. I think I'll sharpen tomorrow and try stropping on newspaper