Stropping for advise...

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Mucho Bocho

Mucho Bocho

KKF Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
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Location
Raleigh, NC
I know the absolute finest edges are blades are sharpened freehand. I've tried it before and just scratched the S#!+ out of my expensive blades. Plus I don't have the time to invest in freehand-sharpening lifestyle.

So I switched to the Edge Pro system and have about mastered it (all be it 99 stones and do-hickies later) including strops. I'm very happy with the results but I don't want to drag out the kit every time I want to freshen up the blade.

Anyway, Could you give me suggestions (Dave M., Eamon, Jon in particular) on a table strop that I can use (thinking unloaded?) that I can pull out quickly to touch up the blade prior to cutting. This way I can't scratch the blade up too much. I have a HA fine ceramic rod but it takes too much metal off and makes my edges too aggressive. I like then nice gentle finish that stropping leaves. Leather? Balsa? Felt? Cardboard?
 
Well, Dave sells one, right? I'm sure he wouldn't sell it if he didn't recommend it. It works okay unloaded but you might as well put something on there. IMO, 1 mcn diamond is pretty nice. I have mine in a drawer in the kitchen. It's prettey easy to pull out and use on a moments notice.
 
I've just added a 3 micron natural diamond strop to the line up before the 1 micron diamond and for my work knives have been going with a two stone, two strop sharpening and still get hair popping edges that still have good "bite" to them. It's also great for touch ups between sharpenings.
 
I use Dave's professional strop system. It includes deburring block, felt pad, leather pad, spray, and base. If you're just looking for leather, I believe he sells just the pad and base.

I think the base looks great and I leave it out on the counter. Wife hasn't complained yet. :D
 
How well does balsa wood work unloaded? Finally found a local store that sells blocks of it..
 
shankster said:
How well does balsa wood work unloaded? Finally found a local store that sells blocks of it..
Click to expand...
Depends on what you mean by "work." It will do a little something that isn't much. Unloaded leather does a little more work and works significantly better for deburring. You might be able to play with the surface of the balsa to get it working better but I haven't tried that.
 
What I mean by "work" is, does it do a good job,ok job or not so much as a final strop or quick touch up? I have some of that green crayon stick stuff,so I guess I can try both..
 
shankster said:
What I mean by "work" is, does it do a good job,ok job or not so much as a final strop or quick touch up? I have some of that green crayon stick stuff,so I guess I can try both..
Click to expand...
About a year ago (?) somebody here posted about using plain balsa to strop and I gave it a try. It works pretty well for touching up my VG-10 knives, but doesn't seem to do much of anything for the Shig or Ealy. I'm not sure why that's the case--maybe because the latter two are higher hardness? I don't know. :dontknow:
 
I don't like balsa, I find it makes very little difference. I have beat up old split leather strop that I use all the time, I have tried fancier alternatives that are much harder but I like the softer one I have
 
rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd ask the question here...

What do y'all think of stropping on glass w/ some sort of applied substance, i.e. diamond spray, compound schmear, etc?

I ask 'cuz there's an opion that a strop should be as hard/solid as possible to avoid rounding or rolling the edge. [/B]
 
stevenStefano said:
I don't like balsa, I find it makes very little difference. I have beat up old split leather strop that I use all the time, I have tried fancier alternatives that are much harder but I like the softer one I have
Click to expand...

Are you loading the balsa with anything? Loaded with CrO i quite like it.
 
TB_London said:
Are you loading the balsa with anything? Loaded with CrO i quite like it.
Click to expand...

Tried it with diamond and Cr0 but I noticed a much better edge with the leather than balsa. The balsa seemed to sorta just polish the edge but didn't improve its performance to me
 
mpukas said:
rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd ask the question here...

What do y'all think of stropping on glass w/ some sort of applied substance, i.e. diamond spray, compound schmear, etc?

I ask 'cuz there's an opion that a strop should be as hard/solid as possible to avoid rounding or rolling the edge. [/B]
Click to expand...

Why don't you try it and tell us?

I've always thought that the compound had to embed in the substrate to work well...
 
Leather on wood. 3-4-5 oz. leather with the grain side up is what I prefer..... for now. Been using the same strop for about 37 years. Made tons of em and experimented with all kinds of compounds and sprays and always come back to leather and Cr2O3. If you want a firmer, more rigid leather, melt some paraffin into it then put your compound over that.

Now, that being said, there is one of our members going OCD on strops, strop theory, fabrication techniques, backings, finishing, etc., and I'm expecting when he has time he will post some results of his exhaustive work. Based on his results I may change my mind on what to try next...if anything. I'll leave him unnamed, but I think most know who it is.

PZ
 
Mucho Bocho said:
I know the absolute finest edges are blades are sharpened freehand. I've tried it before and just scratched the S#!+ out of my expensive blades. Plus I don't have the time to invest in freehand-sharpening lifestyle.

So I switched to the Edge Pro system and have about mastered it (all be it 99 stones and do-hickies later) including strops. I'm very happy with the results but I don't want to drag out the kit every time I want to freshen up the blade.

Anyway, Could you give me suggestions (Dave M., Eamon, Jon in particular) on a table strop that I can use (thinking unloaded?) that I can pull out quickly to touch up the blade prior to cutting. This way I can't scratch the blade up too much. I have a HA fine ceramic rod but it takes too much metal off and makes my edges too aggressive. I like then nice gentle finish that stropping leaves. Leather? Balsa? Felt? Cardboard?
Click to expand...

Dave's strop kit, really is all-u-need, very good materials/construction and large. If you have the scratch, get it.

You can make a strop with pretty much anything flat, a scrap of leather, glue and some sort of compound. A lot of outdoorsy types make strops for their convex edge hunting knives with a paint stick, some leather, and that green compound you get at hardware stores.

I have used balsa wood plain, and it doesn't do much of anything. Loaded strops work so much faster than the alternative, it'd be crazy to use one unloaded IMO.
 
Eamon, thanks for the feedback. Dave is out of the strop selling business. Mark has a cool bench set-up that has magnetized top to adhere multiple strop faces. Its about $100 for the config i'd like. I'll probably do it at some point and offer feedback when i do. thanks for chiming in. dp
 
Mucho Bocho said:
I don't think its appropriate to provide that info on Dave's forum. Sorry Duckfat
Click to expand...

Say what? I would think Dave would be cool giving us a link to his own web site. Now who is Mark? :stinker:

Dave
 
What's that have to do with it being in-appropriate to ask Dave on his own forum about one of his products?
Sorry, I'm not sure if I just haven't had enough coffee today or I've totally missed the boat.


Dave
 
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