AFAustin
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 2,488
I first became curious about denim as a sharpening substrate when I got in the habit, almost unconsciously, of giving a knife a few quick swipes on my jeans. It always seemed to give the edge a little extra "pop". That led me to looking around the forums for folks who might use denim as a basis for their strops. I found a few posts but not many. I decided an experiment was in order and made up a few denim strops myself. Mine could not be simpler (or cheaper). I grabbed a few paint sticks and cut up some old worn out jeans. At first, uncertain how this would turn out, I didn't even glue down the denim but rather just attached it at each end with a thick rubber band. I then applied some Bark River green (fine) compound, and gave it a test. I was more than pleased with the results.
What impressed me most was how "forgiving" the strop was. Like most people, my first strops were wood backed leather. I found there was a learning curve with them, though, and I often ended up rounding my edge a bit. Time and practice helps a lot, and now I have a better feel for these and can use them with good results. But I still have to focus and really pay attention to the angle to get it right. In contrast, with the denim, I could simply hit a few licks without really paying much attention at all to an exact angle, and my blade came out polished and sharp. Actually, I've now gotten in the habit of laying the blade flatter than I would on a leather strop, which seems to produce the best results. I'm guessing that's because the "give" in the denim allows it to reach up and just lightly "kiss" the very edge. But what's so interesting to me is that, even with a higher angle, you just don't get the edge rounding that you can with a leather strop. Again, my guess is that the "give" in the denim makes for so much less pressure than you get with leather. I know I'm probably not explaining this very well, and I really hope some of our sharpening pros will chime in here with a better explanation of the physics.
So, back to my experiment. I was now ready to apply the glue for a more "permanent" model, which of course also allowed for a better stroke without having to dodge the rubber bands! I experimented with different layers of denim, up to 3. I found 3 to be too "mushy" for my tastes, but have had great results with both 2 layers and 1 layer. I think my favorite so far is the 2 layer, but I'm still experimenting. Also, as per my comments above, I lay the blade a little flatter with the 2 layer strop (since there is more "give"), and raise it a bit with the 1 layer strop.
I next made up a couple more, in 2 layers and in 1, and applied Mother's Mag Polish. This also works very well, and yields, as you would expect, a slightly higher polish than the Bark River green.
I also made up some bare denim strops but interestingly, in spite of my initial revelation based on stropping on my jeans, I didn't like the results with those as much. They seemed to leave a little roughness/toothiness to the edge, and I much preferred the smoothness of my compound finished edges.
I also made a denim bench strop, but found that I didn't get as good results on it as I did with my little paint sticks models. I really like holding the paint sticks in my left hand as I strop with my right---I just seem to get a much better feedback, and better results, doing it this way.
My current default sharpening system is initial bevel setting with my Work Sharp Ken Onion, then maintenance and touch-ups with my Sharpmaker (especially the UF rods), and finishing on these humble little denim strops. I would really like to read posts from anyone who is already using something similar, or who decides to make up some of these and give them a try. They are easy as pie, virtually free, and have put a shine on my edges and a smile on my face.
Thanks for reading.
Andrew
What impressed me most was how "forgiving" the strop was. Like most people, my first strops were wood backed leather. I found there was a learning curve with them, though, and I often ended up rounding my edge a bit. Time and practice helps a lot, and now I have a better feel for these and can use them with good results. But I still have to focus and really pay attention to the angle to get it right. In contrast, with the denim, I could simply hit a few licks without really paying much attention at all to an exact angle, and my blade came out polished and sharp. Actually, I've now gotten in the habit of laying the blade flatter than I would on a leather strop, which seems to produce the best results. I'm guessing that's because the "give" in the denim allows it to reach up and just lightly "kiss" the very edge. But what's so interesting to me is that, even with a higher angle, you just don't get the edge rounding that you can with a leather strop. Again, my guess is that the "give" in the denim makes for so much less pressure than you get with leather. I know I'm probably not explaining this very well, and I really hope some of our sharpening pros will chime in here with a better explanation of the physics.
So, back to my experiment. I was now ready to apply the glue for a more "permanent" model, which of course also allowed for a better stroke without having to dodge the rubber bands! I experimented with different layers of denim, up to 3. I found 3 to be too "mushy" for my tastes, but have had great results with both 2 layers and 1 layer. I think my favorite so far is the 2 layer, but I'm still experimenting. Also, as per my comments above, I lay the blade a little flatter with the 2 layer strop (since there is more "give"), and raise it a bit with the 1 layer strop.
I next made up a couple more, in 2 layers and in 1, and applied Mother's Mag Polish. This also works very well, and yields, as you would expect, a slightly higher polish than the Bark River green.
I also made up some bare denim strops but interestingly, in spite of my initial revelation based on stropping on my jeans, I didn't like the results with those as much. They seemed to leave a little roughness/toothiness to the edge, and I much preferred the smoothness of my compound finished edges.
I also made a denim bench strop, but found that I didn't get as good results on it as I did with my little paint sticks models. I really like holding the paint sticks in my left hand as I strop with my right---I just seem to get a much better feedback, and better results, doing it this way.
My current default sharpening system is initial bevel setting with my Work Sharp Ken Onion, then maintenance and touch-ups with my Sharpmaker (especially the UF rods), and finishing on these humble little denim strops. I would really like to read posts from anyone who is already using something similar, or who decides to make up some of these and give them a try. They are easy as pie, virtually free, and have put a shine on my edges and a smile on my face.
Thanks for reading.
Andrew
