Stropping: angle plus pressure

handamerican said:
The best technique I've found is one I lifted from Cape Forge knives back in 96'. Mike explained that a good honing leather is only good for one thing - Making a good edge great,

It won't make a bad edge good, and it's very easy to dub and dull a good edge with any leather.

The technique is simple. Lay the blade flat on the leather and push forward while raising the spine in tiny increments. At some point the edge will bite into the leather - that's the angle that you have no choice but to work with because it happens to be the actual angle of the edge.

Once the edge bites pull back with light pressure and at the end of the stroke just stop - stop and pull the blade up and off the leather.

If you pull the blade off of the leather at the end of the stroke in an arc, which is a very normal thing to do, you will have undone all of your work.

Once you experience the level of perfection that leather honing can provide and have a leather honing epiphany you will probably seek better leathers to work with.

You don't need compound on a good honing leather. The technique works with other things too, balsa, etc - even stones and fine papers.

This is a good muscle memory technique - hope it helps.
Keith
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Another great tip. Thanks Keith!
 
Joe Talmadge said:
I live to serve
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:thumbsup:
I've referred back to this thread a lot, and linked it in many posts as a good reference for others to look at. Saved it to my 'Reference' subscription folder, so it was handy when I went looking for it.

Thanks, Joe, for making it 'stick' where all can see it.
 
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Great thread! Now I finally understand what I've been doing wrong. I need to use less pressure and slow down.

My knives and I thank you!

Dave
 
Read it... twice!
Grateful for all the info in here.
Will try it,starting from scratch,tomorrow after some shut-eye.

~Gnarly
 
This is the place to learn. I was creating burrs , and then having them fold over . Didnt know I was doing it. These guys straightened me out. I can quickly get my knives sharp enough that the hair just sort of floats off myself.My arms, legs, belly, and chest have these little bald spots, looks like I have the mange. All I have are some el cheapo diamond stones and ceramic rods to work with.
 
excellent info, mostly i use a strop to eliminate possible burrs since i probably have every sharpening aid known to god. one problem i've noticed with real keen smooth edges is the lack of bite on some of our local trees , mesquite & bois d'arc. super smooth edges [for myself] do'nt seem to make much progress trying to cut into local superwoods. maybe i just thought i had a good edge but extensive use on the edge pro to 6000 polish tape then a few strokes on the stroup & i ca'nt make decent bites into bodark. at this time i have been using fine spydie hone after mirror polishing the bevels, seems to bite better in hard wood but maybe i'm fooling myself. ---dennis
 
DennisStrickland said:
excellent info, mostly i use a strop to eliminate possible burrs since i probably have every sharpening aid known to god. one problem i've noticed with real keen smooth edges is the lack of bite on some of our local trees , mesquite & bois d'arc. super smooth edges [for myself] do'nt seem to make much progress trying to cut into local superwoods. maybe i just thought i had a good edge but extensive use on the edge pro to 6000 polish tape then a few strokes on the stroup & i ca'nt make decent bites into bodark. at this time i have been using fine spydie hone after mirror polishing the bevels, seems to bite better in hard wood but maybe i'm fooling myself. ---dennis
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Probably the micro-serrations left by the Spyderco hone giving you just enough teeth to really bite into that wood. Some of my most finely polished edges are left behind (in real world cutting) by a more crude, un-stropped micro-bevel on the Sharpmaker or Dmt hone.

I've also had wire edges (I think) on some finely sharpened blades. After much work and getting an edge that appeared very nice, I'd experience dull spots. In these cases, sometimes drawing the finished edge through the rim of a large cork would make them exponentially sharper. So much to learn and so lttle time eh? :)
 
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I heard the word strop and I wondered what it was. Now I know, great thread. Ok here is my question. I use a stone to sharpen my edc which is a Kershaw Blur. I spend 5-10 minutes a month doing this. Would stropping be more effective? And what is needed to strop? I have a raw leather belt, would that work? Or do I need compounds and... stuff?
 
BobSig said:
I heard the word strop and I wondered what it was. Now I know, great thread. Ok here is my question. I use a stone to sharpen my edc which is a Kershaw Blur. I spend 5-10 minutes a month doing this. Would stropping be more effective? And what is needed to strop? I have a raw leather belt, would that work? Or do I need compounds and... stuff?
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This thread is an excellent reference, for making a strop ----> http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/770338-demo-how-to-build-you-own-strop
 
Like many people have already mentioned, this is fantastic post. Thank you very much. I went back to the strop after reading (and re-reading) your post and looking at the images you made, and it "clicked" about how I was making my knife duller by convexing the edge too much. I tried the different "correct" methods you listed and found that what works best for me is to lay the blade flat on the strop and use a little pressure so the strop can bite the edge itself. Now my edges are much sharper and only ever-so-slightly convexed... which frankly makes for a stronger edge anyway, so that's fine. At least I'm not wasting time on the strop by making my knives *duller* any more!

Thanks for this great post! :)
 
For what it's worth to anyone, I'm going to start using green compound after white diamond and finish with bare leather. Hopefully, this will give me even more insane sharpness. I'm a little worried about drawing that edge out too much. Any thoughts on that, anybody? For a field knife, is all that sharpness really necessary, and won't all that honing and polishing make that edge more likely to fold over or dull?
 
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