Newcomer to stropping, advice please?

[Ruslan]

Yes i just bought my first Japanese knife (Shun 6" Classic Chef), i am going to look into lesser known brands and get different brands for my collection, but i went simple first.

I like it so far but i would like advice on what leather to use for making a strop or what is good to buy, as well as what compounds are good and all of that, I would just assume i have no experience and would like advice please on what to get.

I do have some scrap leather, All cowhide i believe and it is various hardnesses as well as thicknesses, Unsure on what types of cowhide it is and what not.

would appreciate any help someone can give me, I wanna learn but i can't seem to figure it out lol.

[ChefKnivesToGo]

We use bark tanned leather that comes primarily from the butt. It tends to be thicker and firm and it’s better than soft stuff like suede type leather. Both sides are ok but I much prefer the smooth side instead of the split side. Try stropping on bare leather first and then consider some diamond spray later if you like stropping. In general it’s a gentle and easy way to finish your edges or for quick touch ups between sharpening.

[Radar53]

Hi There Rusian & welcome to the forum.

I strop on 4mm bovine (rough & smooth) and kangaroo (again rough & smooth) all without any compounds. If the edge needs more than a strop then I go back to whichever fine stone with a few trailing stokes to bring back the edge. When that no longer works then I drop down to a 1k or 2k stone and do a bit of a resharpen.

The benefits that I see in the above is that I don't clag up my strops with compound and I don't have to have 5 strops, each with a different grit compound on it, carefully put away in it's own plastic ziploc bag. This is just what works for me YMMV

[Peter Nowlan]

I use bare leather. Never got the whole diamond paste thing, tried it for a few years and came to realize I don’t need it. Nice bare leather is the only thing I use.

[old onion]

I have a nice Kangaroo strop and I refuse to put anything on it.I have several loaded strops with various compounds but I am keeping this leather strop virgin.

[Jeff B]

Bare leather is my favorite way to strop. I've tried a lot of compounds over the years and, like Peter, just really don't see the benefit. Especially given the cost.

[jmcnelly85]

I use 1 micron boron carbide paste on balsa occasionally and get good results. I can get good results on bare horse leather, but actually prefer the results I get from full page color ads on newsprint. Using a free, disposable, and easily replaceable medium like newspaper allows me to use edge leading passes and have helped further my understanding of pressure and angle control as it’s a very unforgiving medium. In the past, I would struggle with the challenge to edge lead on newspaper without nicking it, after getting it down my sharpening has improved while I’m on the stones from the lessons I’ve learned. To be honest, stropping isn’t as important to me as it was in the past, there was a time when I’d feel ok with where an edge was on a my highest grit stone and strop til it was good, now I strive for a great edge on a mid grit stone, and finish with much less stropping just for the extra hint of refinement. I’ll still take some knives way up high for fun and effortless push cutting, but as my edges improve over time it becomes less and less necessary from a functional standpoint.

Long story short, it’s easy to use strops as a crutch. Strops are effective, versatile tools that are a part of a sharpeners repertoire; however, it’s important to visualize exactly how and why it’s being used. Any abrasive on any medium has potential to be effective. Ask yourself what it is you want the strop to do and let that answer dictate what stropping strategy you want. If you plan to use knives with the highest imaginable levels of refinement, nano cloth with extremely small abrasives are your best bet, for something as a maintenance device a piece of loaded balsa or leather anywhere from matching to 4-6x higher than your highest stone will do, as will bare leather, if it’s for for the next step in a stone progression, think of it as if it were a stone and stick with something 2-6x higher than your highest stone and go from there. With more information on what results you want out of stropping it will be easier to tailor something perfect for you.

Or just grab a newspaper.

[Horizonson]

I was able to keep some highly abused knives "cutting" with an old rough-out double-side strop, loaded with BRK black on one side and green on the other.

But they eventuality got to the point of needing "stone work".

I'll be teaching my lady how to use it to maintain edges on the cheap cutlery. As I will be moving to just stones and naked kangaroo.

Stropping is a great way to keep a keen edge throughout the week, month or season (depending on use), in between sharpening sessions.

[Horizonson]

...Using a free, disposable, and easily replaceable medium like newspaper allows me to use edge leading passes and have helped further my understanding of pressure and angle control as it’s a very unforgiving medium...

Oh man!

Thank you for that insight!

I now have one more "life goal" to add to my growing list

[Drewski]

I've heard people say that they also strop on a stone to bring back the edge a bit if the leather isn't cutting it (pun intended). My highest grit stones are a chosera 5k and a Kitayama 8k, both splash and go. Would these be advisable to strop on? And would I strop with wet stones or dry stones? I realize some of you reading this probably think this is a stupid question.

[jacko9]

I've heard people say that they also strop on a stone to bring back the edge a bit if the leather isn't cutting it (pun intended). My highest grit stones are a chosera 5k and a Kitayama 8k, both splash and go. Would these be advisable to strop on? And would I strop with wet stones or dry stones? I realize some of you reading this probably think this is a stupid question.

I strop on my Kitayama 8K stone (wet) using trailing strokes. I only need a few strokes on that stone to get a nice edge again.

[Jeff B]

I've heard people say that they also strop on a stone to bring back the edge a bit if the leather isn't cutting it (pun intended). My highest grit stones are a chosera 5k and a Kitayama 8k, both splash and go. Would these be advisable to strop on? And would I strop with wet stones or dry stones? I realize some of you reading this probably think this is a stupid question.

There are no stupid questions when seeking knowledge. Yes both of those stones are fine to strop on and use them wet.

[Thuja Magus]

My favoriste strop is made of denim backed on a piece of veneer.

Leather is nice to and there's a lot of choices.

Pasted and emulsion, to me, are snake oil.

[Radar53]

...Using a free, disposable, and easily replaceable medium like newspaper allows me to use edge leading passes and have helped further my understanding of pressure and angle control as it’s a very unforgiving medium...

Oh man!

Thank you for that insight!

I now have one more "life goal" to add to my growing list

I love edge leading, but on paper that's going to be an interesting challenge

[Gregory27]

...Using a free, disposable, and easily replaceable medium like newspaper allows me to use edge leading passes and have helped further my understanding of pressure and angle control as it’s a very unforgiving medium...

Oh man!

Thank you for that insight!

I now have one more "life goal" to add to my growing list

I love edge leading, but on paper that's going to be an interesting challenge

I've found that the hardest part is just getting the paper to lie flat, because any tiny bit that isn't dead flat, pretty much ruins the whole thing.

[jmcnelly85]

Pull it tight around a dry atoma plate, it’ll have a little give and won’t be perfect. Gently aim for the teeniest bit behind the edge and move slow and steady. It’s very unforgiving but the edge really pops spot on.

[ken123]

Ah where to begin? Let's start with definitions - stropping. Narrowly, it can be defined as edge trailing strokes on leather. More broadly, it can be other substrates - newspaper, paper, various leather and nanocloth strops. Even more broadly it can include sharpening stones, balsa and other wood surfaces. Strops can be bare or loaded using various compounds - CBN, poly and mono diamond, even abrasives from sharpening stones (natural and synthetic).

Strop abrasives are a MUCH larger range of products than what is being discussed here. You can think of strop abrasives as being only finer grits, BUT strop abrasives can go from quite coarse to extremely fine. Indeed, some sharpeners use strops WITH abrasives on it exclusively, not using stones at all!

Basics - what grit is a strop? Let's start at 1k grit. This is 16 microns. We can go coarser - 30 45 80 microns. 30 microns is a 500 grit strop.

Nanocloth is known (rightly so) for it's ability to handle the finest abrasives (as fine as 5+ million grit) -- finer than cow or horse leather, BUT it can also handle coarse grits. Next is kangaroo leather. While it can be used bare effectively, it can be used with compounds too. The compounds are considerably faster. Why? Well leather contains silicates that act as an abrasive, but these silicates are of a low concentration AND are not as abrasive as harder particles like CBN or diamond. Typically you can use a 4 micron compound (4k grit) for touchups on a wide range of steels. This gives a finer edge than the BRK black compound (in the 3k range). If the edge needs more work, you can go to coarser grits. Think of the coarser grits as you would think of sandpaper. Of course you can go finer. In many instances, a sngle purpose strop can take care of most of your basic needs. Indeed doing it right you will rarely need to go back to stones.

Stones can be used as strops - yes you can put compounds on stones too. For synthetics, try to match the stone's grit. For naturals, you can go a good bit finer. So you can put 16 micron CBN on a 1k stone giving the stone a MUCH wider capability. You can even use a 0.5 micrron CBN on a 20k stone too.

This is just an introduction. Hopefully this will stir some questions.

You can also clean leather strops - yet another topic.

---
Ken

[ken123]

Oh man!

Thank you for that insight!

I now have one more "life goal" to add to my growing list

I love edge leading, but on paper that's going to be an interesting challenge

I've found that the hardest part is just getting the paper to lie flat, because any tiny bit that isn't dead flat, pretty much ruins the whole thing.

While you are at it try shaving the text off of the newsprint

---
Ken

[Radar53]

S**t Ken. Next you'll be offering to remove unwanted tattoos Now that would be a lucrative business!!