How to use a strop with stropping compound?

J

jmflem

Joined
Feb 1, 2014
Messages
373
I made myself a leather strop by gluing a piece of leather (fuzzy side up) to a piece of hardwood I had lying around. It's pretty small so I'll probably make a bigger one in the future, and throw this one in my pack or something. I'd like to purchase some stropping compound, but I have some questions first. I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker for sharpening, and when I'm done I usually end up with a slight burr. I have no experience with hand sharpening, so I'm afraid I'll knock off the edge if I try stropping with a compound. How can I remove the burr without risking destroying my edge? Thanks for any help.
 
You won't do any damage to your edge at all by stropping it. If you are winding up with a slight burr, or wire edge, you need to spend more time on the finer rods on your Sharpmaker. That will take that burr right off.

Just sharpen it to where you feel no burr or wire edge, then strop. You can use bare leather, or throw on a little compound. Just rub it on the leather and strop. Some folks will tell you to heat the leather before you apply the compound but it really isn't necessary.

You do know how to use a strop right? If you strop after sharpening it will do nothing to your edge other than make it shinier and sharper. Won't destroy or mess up your edge at all!
 
AntDog said:
You won't do any damage to your edge at all by stropping it. If you are winding up with a slight burr, or wire edge, you need to spend more time on the finer rods on your Sharpmaker. That will take that burr right off.

Just sharpen it to where you feel no burr or wire edge, then strop. You can use bare leather, or throw on a little compound. Just rub it on the leather and strop. Some folks will tell you to heat the leather before you apply the compound but it really isn't necessary.

You do know how to use a strop right? If you strop after sharpening it will do nothing to your edge other than make it shinier and sharper. Won't destroy or mess up your edge at all!
Click to expand...

Well I was thinking with the extra abrasiveness of the compound I could accidentally dull my edge if I was stropping at the wrong angle. Stropping removes the burr, which is removing metal, right?
 
I have a piece of leather glued to the top of my sharpmaker, however I use "white rouge". It's the same stuff I use on my paper wheels to get a mirror edge.

I only touch up my edges on my sharpmaker, it's not good for reprofiling. When I feel a burr move from left to right after a single swipe, I know it's time to strop and move on to the leather, which produces an insanely sharp edge.

I'm no sharpening guru, but from what I've read, use the white compound and then use a green compound on separate pieces of leather. You should be looking for a white compound composed of aluminum oxide which will leave a trail of swarf behind when stroping.

Green isn't necessary unless you feel that you need it, and I've read it's only good for stainless steels anyways. Green should be composed of chromium oxide, hence why it's said to be used on stainless due to the high amounts of chromium in the steel matrix.
 
Mother Mcguires metal polish works just fine too. Pick it up at the auto section at walmart.
 
I use Herb's yellow stone almost exclusively! !!! Its amazing when added with red jewelers rouge in a strop!!!! I swear it makes the finest edges I have ever seen. I worked in a leather shop when I got out of the Army and thats what we used to strop with. A strop loaded with red rouge and yellow rock last. Just break it up into a fine powder and sprinkle it into your loaded strop and work it in with the spine of your blade and do that about two or three times to a new one and it will blow your socks off!!!! I can get my knives sharp enough yo cut the fabric of space and time!!! Great choice!!!
 
Nothing they will work fine, with stropping you don't need a lot of pressure just strop away from the edge. Most any metal polish will work fine.
 
jmflem said:
Well I was thinking with the extra abrasiveness of the compound I could accidentally dull my edge if I was stropping at the wrong angle. Stropping removes the burr, which is removing metal, right?
Click to expand...

That's why I asked "you know how to strop right?".... If you know how to strop, damaging your edge while stropping is virtually impossible. Also, I wouldn't always count on a strop to remove a burr.... Just go on your fine rods of your Sharpmaker until you can't feel a burr, then strop. Easy peasy. Don't overthink it.
 
Blues Bender said:
I have a piece of leather glued to the top of my sharpmaker, however I use "white rouge". It's the same stuff I use on my paper wheels to get a mirror edge.

I only touch up my edges on my sharpmaker, it's not good for reprofiling. When I feel a burr move from left to right after a single swipe, I know it's time to strop and move on to the leather, which produces an insanely sharp edge.

I'm no sharpening guru, but from what I've read, use the white compound and then use a green compound on separate pieces of leather. You should be looking for a white compound composed of aluminum oxide which will leave a trail of swarf behind when stroping.

Green isn't necessary unless you feel that you need it, and I've read it's only good for stainless steels anyways. Green should be composed of chromium oxide, hence why it's said to be used on stainless due to the high amounts of chromium in the steel matrix.
Click to expand...

Green compound will work on any relatively low-alloy steel, stainless or not. In fact, I tend to think it's perfectly suited to simple non-stainless steels like 1095 or Case's CV (green is my favorite for these); it also works very well on simpler stainless like 420HC, 440A and similar. It's not quite as hard or aggressive as aluminum oxide or other harder compounds like SiC, diamond, etc., which is why it's better-suited to low-alloy steels (with minimal carbides, in other words).

Green's effectiveness has no direct correlation with higher chromium content in the steel though; the opposite is usually the case, especially when carbon content is also higher in conjunction with the chromium. In fact, chromium oxide won't be very effective at all on steels like 440C, D2 or ZDP-189, which are loaded with chromium (12-20%) in combination with high-to-very high carbon (1-3%), making very hard chromium carbides. Aluminum oxide is much better for steels like these, because it's hard enough to handle the chromium carbides easily.

Steels high in vanadium carbides, like S30V/S90V/S110V/etc., won't respond as well to any compound except diamond or CBN (Cubic Boron Nitride), which are hard enough to abrade and shape the vanadium carbides (AlOx, SiC, green and others are less hard than vanadium carbide).


David
 
Last edited:
It is possible to blunten a blade with improper stropping technique.

Some good advice I read on these forums: when you reach the end of your stropping stroke and you want to pick the knife up to stroke the other way: rotate the knife on its spine - this forces you to end your stroke cleanly.

If you just pick the knife up at the end of the stroke most people have a tendency to change the angle at the end of the stroke as you lift the knife and this is where the danger of convexing the edge comes in. Whereas if you focus on ending the stroke cleanly, ie. stop. then rotate on spine. there is less chance of edge rounding. Try it!

Also angle and pressure are important - too obtuse an angle with too much pressure can also undo your sharpening work. Read the sticky in this sub forum entitled "Stropping: angle plus pressure" it goes into all the detail on this with some very cool visual presentations.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top