Strop Often But How Often?

[JoshDuvall]

Forgive me if this has been asked already (I did a search but came up with nothing).

I know people say they strop their swivel knife blades often throughout a carving but how often. I find myself stropping about every 5-7 cuts. This seems too often to me but I'm also still new to carving. So about how often do you strop yours throughout a project? Also I'm using a piece of card stock and white jewelery rouge. Am I doing something wrong or does this sound about right? It's a Barry King knife and after stropping it cuts beautifully. Smooth as silk. It just doesn't seem to last that long before I feel I need to strop again.

[mlapaglia]

As often as you need to keep that smooth cut feeling. Change to a piece of leather 2" wide and 6" - 10" long. 2-3 strokes on each side of the blade and back to carving. The brand of leather and the thickness is one of the factors on how often you strop. The amount of water in the leather is another factor. There is no set amount. The longer strop may help you go longer between strops.

Strop as often as you need to.

[cdf]

I strop when the "feel" of the cut changes . One of the biggest things with stropping is learning ( mostly by trial and error ) the right pressure .

Chris

[Neillo]

Hi Josh,

I'm no expert on swivel knives, but I can share a bit of knowledge from my straight razor days.

General opinion dictates that thin horse butt leather mounted on float glass or MDF makes a very fine strop,

All that's needed to charge it is Flexcut, chromium oxide and oil paste, or rouge (in order of metal cutting speed)

You can always go into sub micron diamond pastes and the like for stropping but i'd assume that the BK swivel knife

has a blade made from good steel, are you cutting on any thick tooling leathers or making deep, high angle cuts?

[JoshDuvall]

Thanks for the responses. It's wickett and Craig 8oz skirting. I have some horsebutt from Springfield leather. The 6-7oz, would this be too thick for the strop? I know it definitely would be in cowhide but didn't know in horse since it seems to be "more dense". I only strop when I start to feel the blade drag I just didn't know if 5-7 short cuts seemed like it was "dulling" out rather quickly and maybe I was doing something wrong when stropping.

[NoName]

Some don't like 'em, but I think I can spend more time cutting and less time stropping with a ceramic blade.

I don't think the ceramic actually dulls. I think you just have to clean it off every once in a while on some white rouge on leather.

[electrathon]

I don't think it is possible to strop too often, you can easily strop not often enough. I do it every few cuts.

Aaron

[UKRay]

I don't think it is possible to strop too often, you can easily strop not often enough. I do it every few cuts.

Aaron

[LNLeather]

Forgive me if this has been asked already (I did a search but came up with nothing).

I know people say they strop their swivel knife blades often throughout a carving but how often. I find myself stropping about every 5-7 cuts. This seems too often to me but I'm also still new to carving. So about how often do you strop yours throughout a project? Also I'm using a piece of card stock and white jewelery rouge. Am I doing something wrong or does this sound about right? It's a Barry King knife and after stropping it cuts beautifully. Smooth as silk. It just doesn't seem to last that long before I feel I need to strop again.

Speaking to your comment of not being able to find strop in a Search - try this link How to use the Leatherworker.net Search Engine

Hope this helps

Edited July 7, 2012 by LNLeather

[JoshDuvall]

Speaking to your comment of not being able to find strop in a Search - try this link How to use the Leatherworker.net Search Engine

Hope this helps

I'm sorry I should have been more clear. I had used the search function and came up with plenty of posts on how to strop and to strop often throughout a project but none that really covered my particular question on how often to strop. I apologize for any inconvenience.

[azrider]

I have nothing to back this up with, but I think that the blade picks up stuff that sticks to it when doing cuts. I strop about as often as you do with my Henley blade. I have always assumed it is just to get clean the blade so it glides smother, rather than to sharpen. I had to do the same thing with ceramic blades. I have strops from different leathers, and the really dense horse hide seems almost like a finer grit compared to thick soft cowhide. It doesn't have much drag, but it seems to work very well to touch up the blade.