Care for a loaded balsa strop

Proper user technique and care is essential to enjoying these high performance knives to their fullest while keeping edge damage to a minimum. Learn how here.
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Drewski
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Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by Drewski »

I have a loaded (1 micron paste from cktg) balsa strop and it's getting all grey in colour. I'm assuming the grey is steel from the knives that has been ground off. At what point do you treat/refresh it? And how do you do this? Sanding? Or do you just buy a new one? Thanks for any info on this!
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Jeff B
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by Jeff B »

Balsa is a very soft wood and easily sanded. Sand the surface of the wood with a sanding block or on a hard flat surface with 400 grit paper and your ready to go again. Takes 5 minutes at best.
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by Drewski »

Jeff B wrote: Tue Jun 26, 2018 8:35 pm Balsa is a very soft wood and easily sanded. Sand the surface of the wood with a sanding block or on a hard flat surface with 400 grit paper and your ready to go again. Takes 5 minutes at best.
Thanks Jeff, always great getting advice from someone so knowledgeable. At what point would I do this? Based on my picture, am I at that point? Or does my balsa have a fair bit of use left before sanding?
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by Jeff B »

If you feel it's starting to lose its effectiveness go ahead and give it a little sanding and reload it. You'll be surprised how little sanding it will take to clean it up. That strop will last you a very long time with that simple little clean up and reload, you will get your money's worth out of it. ;)
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by jacko9 »

Your balsa looks like it has a ripple from the planer knives you can sand it but it is going to be difficult to keep it flat. A hand plane will give you a fresh surface and keep it flat if you have one or know somebody with one. From the color it doesn't look too loaded right now so I would think you have some time before you need to resurface and recharge.
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by lsboogy »

My balsa strops look much greyer than yours before I do anything. I have one with 1 micron and one with half micron - use both a couple or three times a week - re-load them two or three times a year and sand them once a year
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by ken123 »

I would prefer using a hand plane.

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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by lsboogy »

Find a flat surface (I have a granite surface plate in the basement - but a decent countertop will do) - I wet the plate and sandpaper and go - but stropping is not about getting a flat surface IMHO - learned on a razor strop that my dad hung in his bathroom when I was young.
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by JoeWheels »

Sandvik cabinet scraper does a great job.
It gives you the smooth fresh cut of a hand plane easily and cheaper.
No cross contamination of abrasive particles is a big plus too.
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by JoeWheels »

You can fine tune the scraper with a burnisher or even the shaft of a screwdriver in a pinch, to adjust the edge curl (small and sharp) for such a soft wood.
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by jacko9 »

The card scraper is a nice tool for those that can set it up properly and keep the burr from rolling over too much. Cost wise it is a lot cheaper than a hand plane but, if you have a hand plane and it's set up correctly the shaving you get and the flat open pore surface is hard to reproduce. I use a hand scraper when putting the final finish on table or cabinet tops to take very fine shavings not to remove a lot of material. Hand planes are easy to come by second hand and can be picked up at a garage or yard sale pretty cheaply.
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Re: Care for a loaded balsa strop

Post by kjpfo287 »

I have used a putt6knife to remove old diamond paste and a hand sander to reprofile a balsa stop ....1. Removed old paste ...2 drew a grid like I do witjmy stones and hand sanded with a 220 grit paper and where ever there is still pencil Mark's sanded a little more not perfect level by a survivor po t of view but worked well for me.3 used a 400 grit the 1000 grit paper to finish smoth wipe with micro fiber cloth and load up with fresh paste
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