Is stropping really an effective practice?

TheOne45 said:
The only shortcoming I see is with so called toothy edges. After each refreshing on a strop you loose some of those teeth till you end up with a very refined push cutting edge.

If I may add...
here and there I see a statement that you can round the edge if you strop too much and you loose the sharpness.
I must say I couldn't do that so I wonder if I misunderstood the word "round".
Do this mean radius on the apex (dull edge) or convexing the edge?
Click to expand...
Yes, correct- I like fine edges, so I have no toothyness to loose.

Blues said:
If one is not careful with their stropping, they may blunt the edge which they had properly apexed on the stone. (Rounding the very edge.)

But stropping with abrasives can also be used to convex the bevel as well.
Click to expand...
Blues is right on both counts.

Stropping will invariably slowly convex the edge over time. This is usually rectified by a stone sharpening once there's some blunting that strops aren't going to expediently correct.
 
Blues said:
If one is not careful with their stropping, they may blunt the edge which they had properly apexed on the stone. (Rounding the very edge.)

But stropping with abrasives can also be used to convex the bevel as well.
Click to expand...
I suppose so,
If stropping freehand it's not so simple to maintain the same angle and same pressure each stroke. I would say it also depend on the strop... thickness and softness of the leather and size of the fibers.
For my sharpening system I made strops with very thin leather (1 milimeter) and this leather has very short fibers. After tests I discovered I need to increase the angle for 1.5 (sometimes 2) degrees. If not the strop has no effect and does not remove the burr if I apply normal pressure on guiding rod.
When I strop freehand I just go with a feeling. It's hard to say but I think I can't hold the angle better then +-1 or 2 degrees.

Most people don't know the strop will convex the edge no matter how carefull they are and they try to strop at sharpening angle. In best case it will convex only a few microns of the edge. Of course, you can't see this with our magnifying glasses (only with SEM) so most think there is no convexing.

And I agree,
you can convex the bevel. I did this with my Bahco 2446. First I reprofiled the factory scandi grind to even it and make it true scandi and then stropped to get a convex edge. I did it with felt wheel and industrial polishing compound but I could do the same with a strop. But it would take much more time.
 
I actually convex my edge on stones using a rocking motion and a loose wrist. Problem is when stropping those convex edges it's difficult to feel out the correct angle, whereas with a V edge it's more straight forward. To make matters worse, I've been edc'ing a lot of really hard D2, and for the life of me I can't get the burr off of it using a strop loaded with my usual white gold compound... instead I have to do it with fine diamond stones and adding a microbevel, which ruins my pristine convex geometry.
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
I actually convex my edge on stones using a rocking motion and a loose wrist.
Click to expand...
I never tried that yet.

SwissHeritageCo said:
To make matters worse, I've been edc'ing a lot of really hard D2, and for the life of me I can't get the burr off of it using a strop loaded with my usual white gold compound... instead I have to do it with fine diamond stones and adding a microbevel, which ruins my pristine convex geometry.
Click to expand...
I only use diamond strops for my two D2 folders. I never tried to strop them on my strops loaded with ordinary polishing compound so I cant say much. I only use those 'ordinary' strops for kitchen knives.
I can only say I took one of those knives in our lab and it measures 61HRc. It's not the hardest K110 steel but it sharpens so nicely and the burr is not a problem to remove. I can't say this for my fathers Mikov pocket knife. Almost impossible to remove a burr with a strop. It's like rubber.

To add,
I tried the microbevel on my Opinel 10 and it worked just fine, no complaints. It fascinated me how easy it was to make it and how it removed all burr. But I somehow couldn't hold on this micro bevel thing. I don't know why. There is something I find fascinating about strops but I can't put my finger on it.
 
TheOne45 said:
I never tried that yet.


I only use diamond strops for my two D2 folders. I never tried to strop them on my strops loaded with ordinary polishing compound so I cant say much. I only use those 'ordinary' strops for kitchen knives.
I can only say I took one of those knives in our lab and it measures 61HRc. It's not the hardest K110 steel but it sharpens so nicely and the burr is not a problem to remove. I can't say this for my fathers Mikov pocket knife. Almost impossible to remove a burr with a strop. It's like rubber.

To add,
I tried the microbevel on my Opinel 10 and it worked just fine, no complaints. It fascinated me how easy it was to make it and how it removed all burr. But I somehow couldn't hold on this micro bevel thing. I don't know why. There is something I find fascinating about strops but I can't put my finger on it.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. 62.5 hrc on this one, but I know a lot to do with it is not raising too large of a burr to begin with so I've bee raising the smallest burr possible. Even so my traditional compound just wont cut. I've been avoiding diamond compounds for no good reason, guess it's time to try them out.

But yeah you can put a beautifully blended convex edge on by just using a loose wrist and a rocking motion. Feels surprisingly natural and efficient.
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
I actually convex my edge on stones using a rocking motion and a loose wrist. Problem is when stropping those convex edges it's difficult to feel out the correct angle, whereas with a V edge it's more straight forward. To make matters worse, I've been edc'ing a lot of really hard D2, and for the life of me I can't get the burr off of it using a strop loaded with my usual white gold compound... instead I have to do it with fine diamond stones and adding a microbevel, which ruins my pristine convex geometry.
Click to expand...
Try stropping with diamonds.
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
Even so my traditional compound just wont cut. I've been avoiding diamond compounds for no good reason, guess it's time to try them out.
Click to expand...
You will find some diamond compounds also don't cut so good.
I haven't tried Gunny juice, Stroppy stuf and other popular compounds among knife users. I only use diamond compounds we use in our company for polishing mostly carbide hardness tooling. Some of them cut good and some of them not so good. I also have a set of Badak diamond compounds. Despite the price and origin they work surprisingly good.
 
J. Doyle said:
I need to try this.

The diamond paste I got years ago on ebay doesn't seem to cut that well.
Click to expand...
I think you'll be pleased, John. Don's a great guy. I have the 1 micron emulsion and a few of his strops on hand.

I have some oil based diamond paste I bought on eBay or Amazon, I forget, and it pales in comparison and is messy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top