stropping equiptment

[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]

  bruce johnson said:

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]

  MikeG said:

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