Anyone Strop their knives?

I just started stropping a couple of months ago, and it does make a huge difference in the final edge. I started on an onld belt, but moved to a real strop. The strop does do a better job than the belt.
 
missin_hobo said:
Stropping is fun, but 'taking sharpness to the next level' isn't always what you want. A coarser, toothier edge is often alot better suited to certain cutting tasks. A stropped edge just shaves easier.
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Thanks for bringing this up. So many threads and posts are about getting knives "razor sharp", rather than what is most useful and practical in the real world. Personally, if I need a "razor sharp" knife I use a real razor knife and if I need to shave I use a razor.
 
I guarantee that a polished blade will cut longer and better in almost any task, when you leave a burr on a knife it goes dull because the burr has bent to the side. When a blade is polished and the burr removed the edge will only dull as fast as the steel allows.
 
Let’s see if we can find the right forum …
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Joshua J. said:
If you want a good big strop just make your own. Go to a leather store and you should be able to find 6"-8" scraps no problem, or you could just buy a belt blank for $10
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Agreed! I made my own using an old belt. Works just as good for me.
 
Mtn Hawk said:
Thanks for bringing this up. So many threads and posts are about getting knives "razor sharp", rather than what is most useful and practical in the real world. Personally, if I need a "razor sharp" knife I use a real razor knife and if I need to shave I use a razor.
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I've never found any of my EDC knives more useful once dulled than when they were razor sharp. It's not time consuming at about 2 minutes per sharpening either.

Knives cut. Sharper knives cut better. How is a sharper edge more impractical than a less sharp edge? Is expending more force in a cut practical?
 
Mtn Hawk said:
Vivi--

Read "Important Tip", about halfway down. That should answer your question.

http://www.knifeart.com/sharfaqbyjoe.html
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As skeptical as I was about this idea, I have proven this to myself with my fillet knives. I always tried to get them polished like a scalpel. When I began leaving them at a 'medium' grit toothiness, they performed 10x better. Cut better and didn't dull as quickly. Try it yourself and see.

Oh yeah, the original question... Yes, I strop my EDC, usually on the back of a legal pad, to keep a keen edge.
 
kelbro said:
As skeptical as I was about this idea, I have proven this to myself with my fillet knives. I always tried to get them polished like a scalpel. When I began leaving them at a 'medium' grit toothiness, they performed 10x better. Cut better and didn't dull as quickly. Try it yourself and see.
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Yep! Exactly! :thumbup:

This is one of the most important things I've learned about sharpening, just as Joe Talmadge said in his article.

This is a bit OT, but how can stropping with leather, cardboard, denim, paper, etc., sharpen a blade that is much harder than these materials and that can easily cut them. I know it works but it doesn't make sense. I might have run across the answer in the past but, if so, have forgotten. Thanks to anyone who can enlighten me....:)
 
Mtn Hawk said:
Vivi--

Read "Important Tip", about halfway down. That should answer your question.

http://www.knifeart.com/sharfaqbyjoe.html
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That doesn't answer my question.

That explains the theory that lower grit stones leave a finish better for slicing and higher grit stones produce an edge better for push cutting.

You can get a shaving sharp edge off 200 grit stones or 2000 grit.

So again, how is a shaving sharp (Or better) edge less practical than an edge that does not shave? This does not specify what grit you are sharpening with, it simply states that at whatever given grit you are using, you are sharpening properly so as to create a shaving sharp edge. There is no way this is impractical unless your goal is to get a knife that does not cut well.

In addition I would seriously question the following paragraphs:

Joe T. said:
The tests seem to indicate that you should think carefully about your grit strategy. If you know you have one particular usage that you do often, it's worth a few minutes of your time to test out whether or not a dull-feeling 300-grit sharpened knife will outperform your razor-edged 1200-grit sharpened knife. The 300-grit knife may not shave hair well, but if you need it to cut rope, it may be just the ticket!

If you ever hear the suggestion that your knife may be "too sharp", moving to a coarser grit is what is being suggested. A "too sharp" -- or more accurately, "too finely polished" -- edge may shave hair well, but not do your particular job well. Even with a coarse grit, your knife needs to be sharp, in the sense that the edge bevels need to meet consistently.
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Dull feeling 300 grit knife? That's a poorly sharpened blade, period. A knife sharpened on a 300 grit stone can easily be made to shave and push cut newspaper, ask anyone who owns a Krein regrind.

There is no such thing as too sharp. There is such thing as using a coarse edge when you should be using polished and vice versa, which is a different issue. If you need a coarse edge, use a low grit stone, but your bevels should still be clean and your edge should never, ever feel dull right after sharpening.
 
I have hand-sharpened to shaving sharp with a 60 grit aluminum oxide stone. I can scrape hairs with an edge produced by a mill bastard file. I think both Dan Koster and Tom Krein sent me knives with hair popping edges produced with a 120 grit belt.

Now, what is being said specifically, because the statements being made aren't actually about the same thing. Shaving arm hair is not 'razor' sharpness. Stropping is affected by the history of the edge. A couple dozen passes on the strop after 100 grit is going to leave a different finish than a couple dozen passes after 10,000 grit. That 100 grit stropped edge is still going to be very toothy, but the teeth will be refined somewhat. You wouldn't want a saw blade with slag and such fouling the teeth.

Leather, cardboard, paper have silicates, clays, and such that are hard enough to affect the steel. And with a wire, the backing just needs to be stiff enough that the burr will deflect. Though I don't care for fatiguing the edge to make it break off, I also quit steeling to avoid bending the metal instead of grinding in a new edge.
 
I got a 'Barber Strop' from...a barber's supply warehouse. Any barber supply store will have one and the cheap leather one works just fine.
 
hardheart said:
Shaving arm hair is not 'razor' sharpness.
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I learned this today. I tried shaving part of my face with a knife that can effortlessly lift hair off of my arms and legs and the only success I had was that I didn't cut myself (hooray!). It looks like if you want a razor edge you need a razor's edge geometry.
 
Vivi-- Unless you shave with a knife, why do you think a knife is dull just because it's not shaving sharp?

hardheart-- Thanks! :)
 
I suppose I might as well steer this thread back a little towards the original subject.

Buying a strop is not necessary; many improvised alternatives are good enough to get the hang of the process and decide how valuable stropping is to you. A good "real" strop will of course work the best.

I only recently started stropping because I greatly underestimated the benefit of it. I've been using a thick and wide piece of fairly soft leather (trenchcoat belt) without any compound and the improvement in sharpness is obvious.
 
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