Do any of you use a leather strop and honing compound to sharpen your knifes?
I have a two-sided oil stone that I have tried free handed. I can get the blades pretty sharp but not as sharp as in some of the YouTube videos.
I just ordered a two-sided leather strop (which is affixed to a wooded paddle) and two compounds (medium and fine). The fine is a chromium oxide type of polishing compound.
Do any of you use a similar setup? I’m just wondering if I’ll be able to get blades shaving sharp or at least paper cutting sharp where no force is required by the knife to cut the paper.
I’m planning to continue using the stones and then just finishing up with the stropping.
I do have a lot of strops, depending on the edges of my knives. Soft for convex, and hards for flat bevels. Hard leather/soft leather, balsa/mouse pads…
Loaded with chromium oxide, aluminium oxide, diamond slurries…. more than needed.
You can use regular newspaper to strop. It gives nice results too. (16 000 grit…ish…) Just place it on a hard surface for flat bevels, or fold it for convex bevels. If I’d only new earlyer…
If I need a really fine edge I use a strop. I made my own when I used to use a straight razor. They work very well on knives with some polishing compound. Car buffing compound works well.
Mostly though, I am happy with the edge I get from my steels for general use. I have a collection from medium/fine diamond ones through regular ribbed ones to dead smooth ones for polishing the edge.
For my EDC pocket knife blades I prefer a fine diamond steel just to touch up the edge. It makes a good general cutting edge that is quite robust and stays sharp for longer. Probably micro serrations.
I love my strops. They’re of no use on a blade without an edge though. Don’t let you knives get dull. Leather Is best for maintaining a sharp edge. If you use your strop regularly your knife will always have a razor edge. If its really sharp or new out of the box I’ll give it some strops with green compound. You’ll be surprised at the improvement. The knives I use regularly I’ll keep tuned up by stropping with gold compound (course) and then moving to green (fine) . It really keeps the edge in tip top form.
Ya know,this is a superb topic,but over in the uk knifes are like such bad news to carry and own.Unless your a Butcher or something.Punishes someone like me who would love to experience and respect a real knife and how they work.The nearest i have come to sharpening a knife is watching my Grandad with a cut throat razor and a leather strap 30yrs ago.Thers always my Swiss army knife,as concelation prize sorta.
I keep my swiss army knife nice.A fine oil and a stone.
We have an old saying this side of the pond and i wondered if you guys use it.
HES GOT A STROP ON.Which means your in a sad/bad/ mood.Usually around my parts of the uk[lancashire].Old sayings relate back to shipyards or coalmines.I just wondered if thats wher the saying came from……i wonder
I received my two-sided strop today with green (fine) and white (medium) compounds.
The Enlan M011 that I just received is the only knife that I have that is truly shaving sharp.
Using the strops I haven’t been able to get my other knives quite that sharp yet. The GB707 was almost that sharp (out of the box).
I did strop all of my knives and they now all slice paper thinly and easily.
I’m sure it’s just a matter of getting more experience before I can get them all shaving sharp. I also have the Lansky Croc system coming so as far as honing I should be able to eliminate any errors from free sharpening as that system uses fixed angles.
The SRM 604 (tanto blade) just seems worthless to me. It only has a bevel on one side and I can’t even get it to cut paper cleanly. The 605 is fine (and is beveled on both sides).
Of course, because of hand sharpening, you don’t have a totally flat bevel. It’s a bit of a convex, but I try to keep it straight as I can, so I strop on newspaper. Hard leather should work best if you wanted to use leather.
I have a 604 and it can shave hair right out of the box. The chisel edge is the same as Emerson uses on some of their models. If you like the little knives you really should get the SRM 681. You’ll love it. I liked it so much I ordered ten more.
