Stropping Round Punches

[Pablo27]

I am looking for some opinions on an experiment i am trying. I had a couple of Osborne punches(1/4,1/2) from garage sale that were not real sharp. I stamped the punches 1/2 way through the leather, then rubbed stropping compound in the impression left by the punch. Then I put the punch in the impression and rotated it back and forth and it stropped the punch inside and out at the same time! Has anyone else tried this? It seemed to do a very good job so I'm curious what you all think.

Paul

[bruce johnson]

Paul. Problem is that you are also rubbing abrasive against the cutting edge and will dull the edge or roll a burr back up the edge.. Roll your edge on a strop to do the outside or chuck it up and hold your strop against it on a lower speed drill press. Inside you can use a narrow strip of leather rubbed with compound. Push it through from the top of hole and rub it around the inside edge as you tension it and slowly pull it through. This will pull the burr away from the edge and rub it off leaving a clear edge.

[electrathon]

Two things. Strapping does not sharpen the tool, it keeps it sharp. Compound is so fine it would take a very long time to do any serious metal removal to sharpen. Also, putting the tip into the cut and rotating may polish up the sides of the punch some, but it will equally remove the the tip from the cutting edge, similar to a knife going back and forth cutting edge down on a strop.

[Pablo27]

Thanks Bruce and Electrathon for the quick replies. I can see that now that you mention it, I always overlook the obvious looking for the "secret". Ha! Ha! I will use your method Bruce and see if I can learn something. The responses are much appreciated.

Paul