Strop it!

[Mjolnir]

Needed something quick and fun to do and be able to say, ' I made something!'. I'm personalizing as many of my tools as possible.

Then I see this!

Edited January 13, 2018 by Mjolnir
ps

[bikermutt07]

That is pretty neat. I bet you or @Sanch could make that pretty easy.

[JMcC]

Meh...I like yours better Mjolnir ! The other looks too dang finicky. Besides everything I have ever read says when stropping, to do it against a hard surface so as to not round off the corners of your blade. For whatever that's worth.

 

[billybopp]

Those stretched leather strops were pretty common (although usually not as pretty as that one)  about 100 years ago.  They were usually used to strop straight edge razors.

- Bill

[Mjolnir]

16 minutes ago, billybopp said:

Those stretched leather strops were pretty common (although usually not as pretty as that one)  about 100 years ago.  They were usually used to strop straight edge razors.

- Bill

That's what it advertised. But man it looked nice!

 

19 minutes ago, JMcC said:

Meh...I like yours better Mjolnir ! The other looks too dang finicky. Besides everything I have ever read says when stropping, to do it against a hard surface so as to not round off the corners of your blade. For whatever that's worth.

 

Thanks! Sharpening is an art unto itself. So far I've avoided it by occasionally taking out my Ivan Damascus round knife, rubbing my thumb against the blade and saying, "yep, still sharp." Then I use my fiscars rotary, or an x-acto!

[DJole]

My strop looks like this:

That's a flesh side strip with a thin strip for edgers glued to the side. 

that's the main stropping side (with rouge) and a thin strip for my French skiver. 

She ain't pretty, but she gets the job done. 

[bikermutt07]

32 minutes ago, Mjolnir said:

That's what it advertised. But man it looked nice!

 

Thanks! Sharpening is an art unto itself. So far I've avoided it by occasionally taking out my Ivan Damascus round knife, rubbing my thumb against the blade and saying, "yep, still sharp." Then I use my fiscars rotary, or an x-acto!

Don't be scared of sharpening. I was for over 40 years. It's not as mystical as we all grew up believing.

Yes, it can get really technical really quick. But it doesn't have too.

When I decided I wanted to own a knife worth more than 40 bucks I realized I should be able to sharpen it.

In all my research (YouTube) I found one comment that made the difference. No two sets of hands sharpen a knife exactly the same.

So the first time you sharpen the knife, it will take a long time. The blade needs a little extra time to get to know your hands. Later on you may only spend 10-15 minutes sharpening it back up.

I used the sand paper method until I got proficient and built my confidence. Now I use a Kalamazoo 1x42 belt sander.

Keep in mind I was frustrated by sharpening my whole life. I'm only 44 now. I have only been getting things sharp the last 3 years.

Now my Knipknives have only needed stropping so far. They are so so very sharp. I treat them with the utmost fear and respect. I shudder to think what one of those knives could do to my finger or hand.

Your ivan knife may have a long life with just stropping. You just have to stay on it.  I strop my Knipknives at least daily when I'm using them. More so if it is stiff thick leather.

Here is a picture of a folded piece of 7-8 oz Hermann Oak. It is three layers thick. Terry's French model rolled right thru them.

 

[Mjolnir]

1 minute ago, DJole said:

My strop looks like this:

That's a flesh side strip with a thin strip for edgers glued to the side. 

that's the main stropping side (with rouge) and a thin strip for my French skiver. 

She ain't pretty, but she gets the job done. 

I'm loving the side strips! brilliant!

[Mjolnir]

5 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

Don't be scared of sharpening. I was for over 40 years. It's not as mystical as we all grew up believing.

Yes, it can get really technical really quick. But it doesn't have too.

When I decided I wanted to own a knife worth more than 40 bucks I realized I should be able to sharpen it.

In all my research (YouTube) I found one comment that made the difference. No two sets of hands sharpen a knife exactly the same.

So the first time you sharpen the knife, it will take a long time. The blade needs a little extra time to get to know your hands. Later on you may only spend 10-15 minutes sharpening it back up.

I used the sand paper method until I got proficient and built my confidence. Now I use a Kalamazoo 1x42 belt sander.

Keep in mind I was frustrated by sharpening my whole life. I'm only 44 now. I have only been getting things sharp the last 3 years.

Now my Knipknives have only needed stropping so far. They are so so very sharp. I treat them with the utmost fear and respect. I shudder to think what one of those knives could do to my finger or hand.

Your ivan knife may have a long life with just stropping. You just have to stay on it.  I strop my Knipknives at least daily when I'm using them. More so if it is stiff thick leather.

Here is a picture of a folded piece of 7-8 oz Hermann Oak. It is three layers thick. Terry's French model rolled right thru them.

 

nice advice Mutt! my PawPaw's whittling knife had an arc in the blade after years of sharpening. It shaved cedar for longer than I've been alive.

[bikermutt07]

I bet. My maternal grandfather was a furniture maker, and a whittler. He passed before I was born. I never saw his whittles, but my family members have some nice furniture he had built.

[Sanch]

14 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

That is pretty neat. I bet you or @Sanch could make that pretty easy.

Yea that's easy enough to make, and I almost made one when I was forging my own straight razors, but no sense in doing such. Here is the one that I made specifically for everything that I sharpen. I no longer use the cut throats so the strop is in my leather working area one side is grain side up which never gets used as this side was for straight razors alone. The other side is plain and simple. I do not like the way that a 7 to 8 oz piece of leather can roll your Edge. So after much research I used a piece of duck canvas, when sharpening the straight razors this side was used just prior to polishing the edge on the leather side. Here is a picture of the canvas side which is mostly used. The canvas is attached to a cheap piece of straight Poplar.also when it gets "loaded" as you see the center portion of mine is you can scrape it clean using a "junk" knife like my Tandy skiver. This would destroy the leather it doesn't phase the canvas just cleans it so you can reload your rouge... so IMHO canvas is so much better... oh and for the record fire hose is by far superior than duck canvas but its unavailability to me prevented its use. 

[bikermutt07]

37 minutes ago, Sanch said:

Yea that's easy enough to make, and I almost made one when I was forging my own straight razors, but no sense in doing such. Here is the one that I made specifically for everything that I sharpen. I no longer use the cut throats so the strop is in my leather working area one side is grain side up which never gets used as this side was for straight razors alone. The other side is plain and simple. I do not like the way that a 7 to 8 oz piece of leather can roll your Edge. So after much research I used a piece of duck canvas, when sharpening the straight razors this side was used just prior to polishing the edge on the leather side. Here is a picture of the canvas side which is mostly used. The canvas is attached to a cheap piece of straight Poplar.also when it gets "loaded" as you see the center portion of mine is you can scrape it clean using a "junk" knife like my Tandy skiver. This would destroy the leather it doesn't phase the canvas just cleans it so you can reload your rouge... so IMHO canvas is so much better... oh and for the record fire hose is by far superior than duck canvas but its unavailability to me prevented its use. 

Wow canvas huh? I got a whole yard of canvas. I also have some scrap from my Carhartt overalls. Would this be better than the regular canvas?

[Sanch]

42 minutes ago, bikermutt07 said:

Wow canvas huh? I got a whole yard of canvas. I also have some scrap from my Carhartt overalls. Would this be better than the regular canvas?

Either or will work fine, try them both see which one works better for you. The best advice that I can give you in this area is to use at least a 24 in Long strop backer "plank" preferably a hardwood. No pine.....You want your working surface to be at least 18 in Long.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Sanch

[bikermutt07]

Got it. Thanks @Sanch.

[Dun]

On 1/14/2018 at 6:38 AM, Sanch said:

 piece of leather can roll your Edge.

can you go further into what that means? Thanks!

[bikermutt07]

1 hour ago, Dun said:

can you go further into what that means? Thanks!

When stropping a convex edge, the more the stropping material dips down the more it will push your cutting edge away from center. Too much pressure and the edge can actually roll over on to the other side of the blade. 

I have never had this happen. I use really light pressure when stropping. Pretty much just the weight of the blade.

This is what I was talking about way up top about sharpening getting really technical really quick.

[Sanch]

5 hours ago, Dun said:

can you go further into what that means? Thanks!

Sorry for slow reply

 

4 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

When stropping a convex edge, the more the stropping material dips down the more it will push your cutting edge away from center. Too much pressure and the edge can actually roll over on to the other side of the blade. 

I have never had this happen. I use really light pressure when stropping. Pretty much just the weight of the blade.

This is what I was talking about way up top about sharpening getting really technical really quick.

Exactly what @bikermutt07said but it can happen on any blade not just a convex (Appleseed) edge. And he is very right It can get technical quick!

Edited January 17, 2018 by Sanch

[bikermutt07]

@Sanch I never let it get too technical.

[Dun]

Is this roll easily visible once you've stopped too hard or something you have to learn by touch?

[JMcC]

Only if your eyes aren't as old as mine  It is more felt than seen Dun...you can feel a slight burr or rough feeling on one side of the blade if it has rolled on you if that makes sense. Hope that helps.

[bikermutt07]

2 hours ago, Dun said:

Is this roll easily visible once you've stopped too hard or something you have to learn by touch?

I have rolled an edge working with my kizer pocket knife. It is vg 10 and it was visible. Cleaned right up though. Way better than a chip.

[bullmoosepaddles]

@SanchI use fire hose for some of the items I make. If you or anyone else wants firehose, it will be $2 per foot plus shipping, cut to what ever length you wish it. Send me a message if you wish to have some. The hose I use is 3.125" wide double braided.

Now I have to make myself one to try. Question if you will please. Do you leave the hose intact, or cut the outer braid off and attach it to a wooden backer like your canvas?

Thank you........Gene

[Sanch]

On 2/9/2018 at 10:46 AM, bullmoosepaddles said:

@SanchI use fire hose for some of the items I make. If you or anyone else wants firehose, it will be $2 per foot plus shipping, cut to what ever length you wish it. Send me a message if you wish to have some. The hose I use is 3.125" wide double braided.

Now I have to make myself one to try. Question if you will please. Do you leave the hose intact, or cut the outer braid off and attach it to a wooden backer like your canvas?

Thank you........Gene

Sorry for the all to late reply I've been busy at work! To answer your question its dealers choice you could just slip the hose as is over some flat hardwood that would be the way I'd do it that way it doesn't lose its integrity and you have 2 sides one for green rouge one for white. Good luck and thanks for the offer I'm sure someone will pick up on it.