HOW TO BEST USE STROPS ?

[DanielBrown123]

I was wondering which is the best way yo use a strop? There are some that are that are held by hand, and others that are mounted on a piece of wood. Is the freehand method effective, or does the bending of the strop decrease the effectiveness because it is harder to maintain consistent angles, versus the constancy of the angles on a strop mounted on a piece of wood? What are your thoughts? Which method do you use/ prefer? Any recommendation? Below are 2 URL's of images depicting the two different methods.

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...brNAhUGVyYKHbIOCLEQMwhLKA0wDQ&iact=mrc&uact=8

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct...Eaq_cQsKVWQ6u0oKJgJ3P5_Q&ust=1466653759822102

 

[Badgertooth]

There is a middle ground. I've got a Pfeil wood mounted hand-held that now i've learned how to use it, I absolutely love. Takes a little getting used to but you start to really feel the edge if you are in control of both the knife and the strop.

 

[Vangelis]

I have never used a strop for straight razor yet. For knives I have a two, both leather glued on wood.

The first one is hand held, mainly used while cooking and when traveling.
The second is simply big for hand held use so it stands on the kitchen bench and I use it for proper sharpening sessions

Both work fine for knives, and I have also seen people using both options for straight razors

 

[Mika]

For knives I use a homemade leather strop glued to a ceramic tile. It's around 3×10. But I never really used anything else. I made it years ago and it just worked. Haven't had a good reason to change it yet.

 

[clsm1955]

I use a modular paddle strop that I picked up from Straight Razor Place. It has interchangeable surfaces - leather, scrub leather, and felt - that attach magnetically to the paddle. You can treat the felt with diamond spray and the leather with diamond paste (I bought an extra leather so I could have one clean and one loaded). I mostly use the diamond paste loaded leather on my knives and the clean leather on my razor. I don't use the felt or scrub leather much.
For knives I think paddle strops are more practical than free hand strops.

 

[Mika]

Sounds like a killer strop.