Is Stropping Necessary?

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me2

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Oct 11, 2003
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If you have a stone of the same grit? Looking around, extremely fine stones are becoming more available. There are some that go all the way to 0.5 um. There may be some that go finer that I don't know about. So, given equivalent grit size or finish, is there any reason to use a strop? The biggest barrier I can see is strops are generally affordable, while extremely fine stones are quite expensive. However, given the status of finishing stones, I can't see one ever being worn out. My friend has a surgical black Arkansas stone that is 2 generations old with no dish what so ever.
 
Nope. I actually wouldn't recommend it. The point of stones that high is to have a refined edge without the rounding strops can give you.
 
This is why I strop on wood, or paper (single thickness) over wood or glass. Rounding really isn't an issue, except as created during any freehand sharpening on any surface.

The point mentioned of cost of high-end finishing stones versus cheaper stropping alternatives, is what factors into my choices the most. I've always been drawn to finding the simplest, most accessible and affordable way to get the job done, and find great satisfaction in going from initial re-bevelling through refining and stropping, using materials like sandpaper, paper, cardboard or wood, all of which can be had on the cheap (or free) and can be found most anywhere, as needed. I'm sure there's a certain satisfaction to sharpening on stones, and I'll likely try waterstones someday. But I'm finding more and more, if technique is good, and abrasives are chosen & used smartly, there's little need to spend a lot of money to get good (or even great) results.

I think about 97% of my edge maintenance is on firmly-backed stropping materials alone, minimizing use of stones as a whole. So for me, it's well worth it. Whether it's necessary or not, I think comes down to individual preference and fitting to individual methods.


David
 
As mentioned above, there is a good feeling with high grit water stones, as well. It feels very smooth and effortless.
 
I been moving away from stropping as much as possible and when I do it's only on my bare hanging strop for a few passes to help remove a stubborn burr. I have found that I can get most of the burr off before leaving the stones and the minimal burr remaining has no effect on the edge performance.


I guess once you realize what can be done with good stones strops that once seemed amazing now seem obsolete.
 
I strop few times on my palm to clean up the edge after my Norton india stone or sharpmaker.Most times it whittles hair,even though I don't care about it and do not polish my edges much.
 
If i have/can get a stone of equal grit, then no. Much rather to stone. But otherwise, "strops" give me the ability to cheaply and effectively play with different abrasives and mixing abrasives/grits together. I have a theory that a lot of the effects people see from natural water stones is caused by a mix of different grits well blended and used in a slurry. (lapping more than grinding)
 
I'm with David on this one. No, stropping isn't really necessary. If backhoning on a polishing grade waterstone, you're already in effect stropping. Its difficult to say exactly what constitutes "stropping" - there's a very blurry line between lapping, stropping, backhoning etc depending on how you manipulate the variables - every change has an effect on how the abrasive bites into the steel. I find stropping on a very hard backing to reliably produce very fine edges with less or no burr formation relative to a fixed abrasive and does so faster and with a greater margin of error relative to pressure - also very easy to customize finishes rather than be "stuck" with the finish a given stone produces.

I have yet to come across an edge that didn't perform a bit better with some post grind finishing, even if only stropped on paper. The difference it can make at the coarser grit levels is immediately apparent as well.
 
Right, but wouldnt it work the same or better to take a few quick passes on an equally fine stone?
 
me2 said:
Right, but wouldnt it work the same or better to take a few quick passes on an equally fine stone?
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This is just my experience - it takes a lot more time to make a few passes on a fine stone and then check that you've actually hit the apex all the way across, and haven't raised or neglected a burr. I'm a huge fan of the edges I tweak from my polishing waterstones, but they are very unforgiving of pressure and angle variation, so doing a quick touch up requires a clear head, bucket of water, rag, and strong attention from start to finish. Even on ceramics, the angle control, pressure control, and the strong potential to burr remain, added to the possibility of microchipping.

On paper over a hard surface (to be honest, I've been using my Washboard almost exclusively for about a year, but most of my comments can be applied to paper over a combination stone though in my head I'm thinking "Washboard") all I need is some counter space and 20 -30 seconds of my time.

The finish stone will still work fine, but is a very different bird in terms of handling practices.
 
Nope. It can take your edge further but I've never NEEDED it.

For me the extra time it takes isn't worth the extra sharpness. I have spent lots of time to get ultra thin edges but after the first few times I said 'no more'.
 
I find it an easy and fast way to touch up the edge on my work knife. I strop it every day or so for around one minute and it is restored to sharpness. This knife is a hard use knife and if the edge is dull it makes cutting open 30lb bags of filtering medium a real pain in the arse...tears more than slices through the wrapper.
 
HwangJino said:
Nope. It can take your edge further but I've never NEEDED it.

For me the extra time it takes isn't worth the extra sharpness. I have spent lots of time to get ultra thin edges but after the first few times I said 'no more'.
Click to expand...

So you feel stropping leads to a sharper eege than a stone, even when the level of polish is the same?
 
Kai Winters said:
I find it an easy and fast way to touch up the edge on my work knife. I strop it every day or so for around one minute and it is restored to sharpness. This knife is a hard use knife and if the edge is dull it makes cutting open 30lb bags of filtering medium a real pain in the arse...tears more than slices through the wrapper.
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What do you consider sharp? If you had a stone of similar finish, do you think it would be better or worse than the strop? What do you classify as hard use?
 
To answer me2's questions, no, stropping at the same grit doesn't produce a sharper edge. It will often produce a higher polish visually, but the apex will have the same level of refinement. Also, strops convex the edge at a minute level, which adds durability, but retracts from sharpness to an extent.
 
me2 said:
So you feel stropping leads to a sharper eege than a stone, even when the level of polish is the same?
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Of course. The act of stropping helps to draw the metal out making the edge sharper with out removing a much material :p sorry, I had to. Ima go now.
 
On a serious note. I did try stropping to maintain an edge before. Not doing it again. I find it to be more temperamental than just using a pocket stone with a couple quick passes. Slight elevation in angle if I'm really in a rush.
 
me2 said:
What do you consider sharp? If you had a stone of similar finish, do you think it would be better or worse than the strop? What do you classify as hard use?
Click to expand...

Depends: For my work knife, sharp enough to easily slice through two layers of brown paper wrapper about 30 inches long. I open around 24 to 30 bags per 12 hour shift...thank goodness today is my last 12 as business demand just isn't there, back to 8's woohoo...if the knife is dull it tears rather than slices and can take several times as long to perform this task...I don't have the time to waste nor the patience trying to get a dull knife to cut through the wrapper.

I could achieve similar results using a stone of similar abrasive/polishing grit but my strop sits in the drawer of my side table aside my couch. I easily pull it out while watching TV...a couple minutes of passes and voila restored to sharpness for my next day of work.

For my EDC/hiking knives: They can shave the hair off of my arm and/or easily slice, without grabbing, through telephone book paper cut into 3x5 inch pieces...for ease of testing.

I've recently started using black compound and am surprised by how this compound improves the edge while stropping. I usually used just green...knowing it is more polish than abrasive. After reading much on forums regarding black compound I bought a stick at Sears for 3 bucks and used it on the untreated side of my two sided strop. Wow what a difference it makes. It does add sharpness and has really made touching up an edge much better, especially my work knife.
I added this compound after buying a Bark River DPH, which has a convex grind. In previous posts I talked about adding a bevel as I was worried about maintaining the convex edge...my stropping skills were not that good and I would dull a freshly sharpened knife about half the time when stropping with only green compound.

I took the time, after reading some forum replies, etc., to practice my technique and the improvement has been significant. I can now, with care and patience, improve the quality of a hone sharpened knife to a decent degree using the strop as a finishing mode. I can also quickly restore a knife that has dulled just a bit with a couple of minutes using the black then green compounds.



Here are a couple of pics of my "work" knife. You can see my thumb mark where I hold the knife during use. The material is very abrasive as it is a filtering medium for our water treatment system.
This knife: BM H&K Plan D is only several months old and used only for work cutting open the bags I described earlier.
IMG_2435_zpsd97ead93.jpg

IMG_2434_zps0a625d74.jpg
 
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