stropping equiptment

[esantoro]

I watched the Stasiak video on sharpening, and now want to make one of those boards with sandpaper, leather lace with rouge, and strip of leather with rouge for polishing.

Have any of you ever made one of these and made modifications?

I wnt out to a $.99 store and bought a hardboard clip board and took off the metal parts. These are the steps to follow from my understanding:

1. glue down to one side of the hardboard a 2" wide strip of 600 grit wet/dry emory paper.

2. to the other side, glue down a 2" wide strip of leather, flesh side up, to be impregnated with rouge. From the video, it seems that chamois leather is used. I don't have any. I have veg tanned and chrome tanned. Should I get some chamois leather, or just use the fleshiest leather I have on hand, which at this time is probably 8 oz. veg tanned? What about 4 oz. suede?

3. Cut two strips of veg tanned lace and glue them in the space between the emory paper and the stropping leather. I understand I should use 8 oz veg tannned lace for this, one rounded one not. But how should I glue down the laces? Should the grain side of the lace be glued down and the flesh side up, or should the lace be glued down on its side?

Thanks,

ed

[Regis]

I don't know about the lace but, the 2" wide strip of leather is grain side up. There have been a few discussions in this forum about sharpening and a lot of folks use a business card or folder stock impregnated with rouge. I've tried that and it has improved my sharpening. It seems that with a softer surface, you round the edge when stropping. So if you use leather, use a light weight rather than that 8oz.

I watched the same video and am curious about the lace also.

Best of luck, as I am finally getting a "sharp" edge for the 1st time ever.

Regis

[whinewine]

Also, glue the sandpaper down with rubber cement, rather than contact cement, so it can be removed & replaced when it is worn out.

[esantoro]

Also, glue the sandpaper down with rubber cement, rather than contact cement, so it can be removed & replaced when it is worn out.

Great idea. The same with the stropping leather? Would 2 to 5 oz chrome tan be good for the stropping cloth, or should chrome tanned not be used at all? What leather should be used?

Thanks,

ed

Edited March 12, 2007 by esantoro

[esantoro]

Great idea. The same with the stropping leather? Would 2 to 5 oz chrome tan be good for the stropping cloth, or should chrome tanned not be used at all? What leather should be used?

Thanks,

ed

What do you allthink about putting down a strip of 220 grit emory paper as well as 600?

Ed

[Brandon]

What do you allthink about putting down a strip of 220 grit emory paper as well as 600?

Ed

Maybe you could ask Andy directly at denver@leatherfactory.com

[Dale]

Andy's a great knowledge resource, but I think he over-complicated this one. I haven't seen the video, but I no longer cement down the wet/dry and 600 grit is pretty coarse to deal with. I don't cement the sandpaper down because I would spend more time changing it than actually using it. Truth be told, I don't routinely spend any time with the paper. The strop is used the majority of the time. Only when a blade is in bad shape is it necessary to use the paper. The grit used at that point depends on how bad the blade is. If the blade is rusted and pitted I would start at around 220 grit (after using the bench grinder as necessary). Move up a step to the 400 range, move up again several more times until I'm in the 1500 - 2000 range, and then maintain it with stropping. If it gets to the point where stropping doesn't help anymore, I'd probably start with the paper using the 1000 - 1500 grit.

As always, your experience and mileage may vary. Bruce Johnson or Romey (I think he's writing the tutorial?) may have a better opinion.

Dale

[whinewine]

Great idea. The same with the stropping leather? Would 2 to 5 oz chrome tan be good for the stropping cloth, or should chrome tanned not be used at all? What leather should be used?

Thanks,

ed

I would not use chrome at all, as you need something to absorb the rouge/oil (some people use a light base of oil & apply the rouge heavily over top of that; others just rub the rouge over the leather, but ultimately the pores on the leather need to be open to take in the rouge & I don't think the structure of chrome is quite the same).

[bruce johnson]

Regarding the emery paper. I go it through it so much, and so many grits, I would spend half my time gluing a new piece to the board. I tape a full sheet down to a chunk of marble with masking tape. Gives me a nice wide flat surface. The marble weighs enough it ain't going anywhere, safety factor. I used to only go to 800 and then to the strop - an 8X24" strop, with 3/4 commercial oak leather - the firm stuff, Barged to hardwood, grain side up. Now I go to finer paper before going to the strop. Once you find the kind of stroke you can make on a big strop, you won't go back to a small one. More time on the strop and less time in the air going back to start like on a short stoke strop.

As far as glueing down a piece of lace or thin leather to sharpen tools with round edges. If my tool is ground on a radius, I want to keep THAT radius. I find something firm with that radius like a dowel, smooth nail, screwdriver blade, whatever, and wrap the wet/dry around it to hone with. Then strop with crocus wrapped around it.

I think that sharpening tools is probably one of the bigger evolutions we go through with leatherwork as we progress.

Bruce Johnson

[esantoro]

Regarding the emery paper. I go it through it so much, and so many grits, I would spend half my time gluing a new piece to the board. I tape a full sheet down to a chunk of marble with masking tape. Gives me a nice wide flat surface. The marble weighs enough it ain't going anywhere, safety factor. I used to only go to 800 and then to the strop - an 8X24" strop, with 3/4 commercial oak leather - the firm stuff, Barged to hardwood, grain side up. Now I go to finer paper before going to the strop. Once you find the kind of stroke you can make on a big strop, you won't go back to a small one. More time on the strop and less time in the air going back to start like on a short stoke strop.

As far as glueing down a piece of lace or thin leather to sharpen tools with round edges. If my tool is ground on a radius, I want to keep THAT radius. I find something firm with that radius like a dowel, smooth nail, screwdriver blade, whatever, and wrap the wet/dry around it to hone with. Then strop with crocus wrapped around it.

I think that sharpening tools is probably one of the bigger evolutions we go through with leatherwork as we progress.

Bruce Johnson

This forum is absolutely fabulous. I was also thinking that it would seem better to have larger surfaces for stropping and sanding. I don't have the space to devote a marble slab to anything but puching, skiving, and the like, but I think I will devote one legal size hardboard for sanding, one for stropping.

I've got some commercial veg tanned. It's supposed to be 4/5 ox but is more like 3/4. I'll use that, per Bruce's recommendation. would Neatsfoot oil be suitable as an agent to hold the roughe to the leather?

Ed

[bruce johnson]

Ed,

Just masking tape the wet/dry sandpaper down to anything firm, a table top will do. I used my stamping granite for a long time. Just wipe with a damp cloth when done to pick up any stray metal dust. Peel the masking tape off, and store the different grits in file folders.

The leather I use is Siegel's commercial oak. It is pretty firm. As far as oiling the strop, I have never done it. I lightly rough up the grain side with a plain old $1.50 wire brush (old bronc saddle trick to get rosin to stick with out over doing it). I just rub my white rouge or red rouge right on and it sticks for me. I keep one strop of each. Anyone who hads ever seen Al Gould strop a round knife will know why I have a big strop. You can do one whole side of the blade tip to tip without ever lifting it off the surface.

Bruce Johnson

[Brigid's Forge]

Ed,

Just masking tape the wet/dry sandpaper down to anything firm, a table top will do. I used my stamping granite for a long time. Just wipe with a damp cloth when done to pick up any stray metal dust. Peel the masking tape off, and store the different grits in file folders.

The leather I use is Siegel's commercial oak. It is pretty firm. As far as oiling the strop, I have never done it. I lightly rough up the grain side with a plain old $1.50 wire brush (old bronc saddle trick to get rosin to stick with out over doing it). I just rub my white rouge or red rouge right on and it sticks for me. I keep one strop of each. Anyone who hads ever seen Al Gould strop a round knife will know why I have a big strop. You can do one whole side of the blade tip to tip without ever lifting it off the surface.

Bruce Johnson

I have thumbtacked full sheets of sandpaper to smooth plywood, and even the endcut from a 2x10; it works too as long as you do not go over the edge. For rouge, porosity is the key. I even have a southern pine 2x4 whose surface is coated enough with rouge to strop long blades, with a sort of travelling motion. I gave up on a lot of rouge uses when I discovered the really high grit sandpapers - like 2500 will do about the same as rouge. And you can put it against a harder surface, like your granite, for less rounding. This is also how I polish my gravers for decorative cuts on silver.

[MikeG]

I just wet the back of my wet/dry sandpaper & stick it to a pane of glass. Works great! I also use WD-40 on the wet/dry paper instead of water (don't know why, I just like it). I only use the sandpaper on tools that need the edge trued up (and my fishing knives). Once my good blades are sharp, I only strop them & hardly ever need to use the sandpaper.

[Romey]

I use several 2x2 boards with leather epoxied to each so that i can vise it up. The leather I use is dependant on the edge geometry. A convex grind requires less a hard surface then say a flat ground edge. At any rate a small amount of oil with your polishing compound will help. I go clear down to charging paper on a hard marble surface at times. At any rate ill touch on it within the article.

[Romey]

Once my good blades are sharp, I only strop them & hardly ever need to use the sandpaper.

That’s exactly the way it should be and the problem people have with edges, thinking that changing the geometry with honing stones is sharpening when in fact a stropping is all that’s needed. A quick way to ruin an edge is an inexperienced person going at an edge with stones, grinder or what not and changing the geometry. Good on you Mike

Bruce knows what he is talking about; you want to maintain that geometry at all costs. For that very reason for instance on a flat ground edge I actually use real stiff leather grain side up. One strop board I have has sole leather on it and another has leather impregnated with zip ca, which stabilized the leather and makes it extremely hard. Other edges like a convex I will use flesh side up for the flex.

Sharpening is a pretty vast subject and there is no one way to do it, there are common rules to follow to do it correctly. I am all the time trying different things.

Edited March 21, 2007 by Romey