Recommendation? which leather & diamond paste for strop?

T

Teus

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Oct 25, 2004
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I have a few types of leather and diamond paste here. I'm trying to figure out which combination of leather and diamond paste grit would be optimal for me. I'm exploring leather strops with diamond paste to touch up higher grades of kitchen knives, which have a modestly higher hardness, and see frequent sharpening. A knife steel only seems to be useful for cheap knives in bad condition.
I've tried vegetable tanned leather, but it's too hard. A cheaper knife with a badly rolled edge scratches it badly. A local shop sold me something like Russian leather (Juchten/Juften leather), which works better. I have some scraps of saddle leather, which is quite soft but very tough. Beautiful stuff. I don't have enough of it for a strop, but I can get more.
I quite like diamond paste, even the cheap Aliexpress stuff works amazing, but I wouldn't use it for a straight razor. I've tried grits from 1µm to 20µm on a piece of MDF for the final polishing of chisels, but I can't say I see much of a difference between all the grits. It all works alike, and I can't figure out which grit would be optimal for a leather strop. The diamond grit gets pressed into the leather, so every paste seems to give very fine results.

Any pointers?
 
Teus said:
A cheaper knife with a badly rolled edge scratches it badly.
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You should be cleaning up badly rolled edges on a stone. A strop is for maintenance, so if it scratching your leather you need to go to a stone first. Many, including me, prefer hard leather, you use less pressure which stops your edges from rolling over which can happen on softer leather as it compresses.
 
I personally use basswood and gunny juice. I do have leather strops and prefer them to be hard. I've used dmt, venev, kme, and multiple other diamond paste or sprays. They all work fine but gunny juice is amazing.
 
I like to make my strops using kangaroo leather, it is much thinner and harder than horse and cow and has a nice fine pebble finish to it. The Kanga is the strop on the right, uncoated one side and loaded with 0.5 mic diamond on the other. If my knife scratches the strop, steel the knife on a rod or a couple of edge trailing stroke on a hard stone first to straighten any rolls or dings in the edge, the check again on the strop. Still scratches, then a full sharpen back on the stones.
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cudgee said:
You should be cleaning up badly rolled edges on a stone. A strop is for maintenance, so if it scratching your leather you need to go to a stone first. Many, including me, prefer hard leather, you use less pressure which stops your edges from rolling over which can happen on softer leather as it compresses.
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True. I don't want to fix a rolled edge, but it's sad how my veg tan leather got scratched and ugly in no time.
Do edges roll over from stropping?

Jakeywax31 said:
I personally use basswood and gunny juice. I do have leather strops and prefer them to be hard. I've used dmt, venev, kme, and multiple other diamond paste or sprays. They all work fine but gunny juice is amazing.
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damn, gunny juice is expensive. It seems perfect for a straight razor, but too fine for kitchen knives?
I've used 0.5micron mono crystalline diamond paste with a balsa strop. It was somewhat *too* sharp.

Stockman said:
I like to make my strops using kangaroo leather, it is much thinner and harder than horse and cow and has a nice fine pebble finish to it. The Kanga is the strop on the right, uncoated one side and loaded with 0.5 mic diamond on the other. If my knife scratches the strop, steel the knife on a rod or a couple of edge trailing stroke on a hard stone first to straighten any rolls or dings in the edge, the check again on the strop. Still scratches, then a full sharpen back on the stones.
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That's interesting. Good pointers. Not too sure where I can buy kangaroo leather. An entire hide is 0.5m² and costs 75 euro here.
 
Teus said:
Do edges roll over from stropping?
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The apex can get rounded off. When I first started stropping I made my knives less sharp by using too much angle with a strop.

I use the smooth side of the smoothest leather I can find.

Teus said:
've used 0.5micron mono crystalline diamond paste with a balsa strop. It was somewhat *too* sharp.
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What’s this now? Too sharp?? I was going to suggest .25 micron spray (I use American Hand brand) because it seems to bring up a better edge than the 1.0 and 0.5 micron sprays from them. However if “too sharp” is a problem I’m not sure what to suggest… 🫤
 
the AX diamond pastes are effective for mirror polishing and i can tell the difference between the 10 stages. and they work fantastically as stropping compound if applied on paper tape (someone made a thread on the topique) on a GRSS. i think it's called the PTS method.

stropping on leather becomes a challenge when the blade is flexible (fillet knife) OR has a pronounced belly.
 
scdub said:
The apex can get rounded off. When I first started stropping I made my knives less sharp by using too much angle with a strop.

I use the smooth side of the smoothest leather I can find.


What’s this now? Too sharp?? I was going to suggest .25 micron spray (I use American Hand brand) because it seems to bring up a better edge than the 1.0 and 0.5 micron sprays from them. However if “too sharp” is a problem I’m not sure what to suggest… 🫤
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I forgot to say: for a straight razor. too much bite.

kreisler said:
the AX diamond pastes are effective for mirror polishing and i can tell the difference between the 10 stages. and they work fantastically as stropping compound if applied on paper tape (someone made a thread on the topique) on a GRSS. i think it's called the PTS method.

stropping on leather becomes a challenge when the blade is flexible (fillet knife) OR has a pronounced belly.
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what is AX?
I found some threads about the paper tape stropping. quite interesting. I have exactly the same paste as https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/guided-rod-stropping-my-paper-tape-stropping-pts-method.1537649/ and with casual use I don't see much of a difference. I have a set of MDF blocks with grit 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 20.
 
With diamond paste, a strop of hard/firm wood works a lot better with much less risk of edge-rounding issues, as can happen on leather and other soft(ish) substrates. The previously mentioned basswood is handy for strops, as it can be found at hobby / craft supply shops in appropriately-sized, pre-cut pieces for stropping - and it's not expensive. But most any decent wood with a smooth finish can work as well.
 
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