How To Maintain My Strop?

[CountryStyle]

Hello everyone,

I am just now really researching sharpening my tools, and I am wondering about how to maintain a strop. For now, I have been using just a piece of scrap leather and charging it with white rouge. It seems that after I strop a few times on it, it loses its effectiveness because it gets the dark grey buildup on it. Do I need to toss the piece and charge up a new piece of leather when this happens? Do i need to simply try to recharge the old piece on top of the dark grey? Is there a way to clean it off or remove the old rouge?

I'm sure this info is on here somewhere, and I did search for it, but to no avail.

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

[Cyberthrasher]

Just rub some more on top and get back to work. For my white one, which I hardly use, sometimes I'll need to brush off some of the flakes that are on it when it builds up too bad. But, the white (especially the white from Tandy) is really too course anyway. For a better stropping experience, get some of the green - but also remember that there's no standard of color vs. coarseness.

This bar will last you a lifetime. Take a look at those "tips and tricks" too, I want it to be required viewing/reading for everybody

http://www.shop.leatherwranglers.com/product.sc?categoryId=12&productId=9

[Tree Reaper]

WD40 will clean it.

[dirtclod]

If it gets built up pretty bad i take a knife and scrape it off and start over.

[Northmount]

Or use a block of 3/4" MDF cut to what ever size you like to use. Nice flat hard surface. Cheap to replace when you want. Just recharge it when it looks like you need to. The black is iron from your knife. Shows it is doing the job.

Tom

[Tree Reaper]

MDF is know to have metal in it from ground up nails and other metal in recycled wood, might not be a good choice for a sharp swivel knife blade.

Not that I've cut it at night but people have told me it throws sparks pretty well and blades used to cut it dull quickly.

[Northmount]

Possible, however surface is pressed or machined smooth. As long as you don't dig into the surface ... which you should never do, layer of rouge should prevent contact. And the surface is very flat and smooth. Recommended by many woodworkers to get cutting tools scary sharp. So far I haven't experienced any problems with using MDF.

Tom