Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Matthew Carberry on February 28, 2012, 01:12:56 AM
-
Just bought a Stropman "Billy" strop.
http://stropman.com/ (http://stropman.com/)
I've never before been able to apply the phrase "shaving sharp" so uniformly to my knives before.
Heck, give me my strop, Wesley Snipes or David Howell Evans, 20 minutes, and your face and you'll be thinking of a baby's butt.
(wait, there's all kind of wrong with that sentence... =D )
Anyway, worth checking out, American-made by a guy who does it for the love.
-
I've got a very very old barbers strop that I use on my leather tools. Dad got it from grandpa(mom's dad) who moonlighted as a barber.
-
Leather belt from Goodwill glued to a yardstick and Mibro #2 compound from Lowe's.
-
I used to strop my knives to a mirror edge. It made them sharp enough to cut arm hair without even flattening it against your skin first. This is impressive, but I was working at a marina at the time and my main actual use of the knives was cutting rope. I found that the stropped edge cut rope worse than a course edge...especially that shiny rope that is hard to knot. In fact I stopped using the fine stone on my Lansky and started just stopping after the medium (green) stone, and found that the knives cut stuff better that way. It was a weird feeling with the stropped edge.... typically you cut things with a bit of a sawing motion, but the stropped edge was so smooth it would slide across the rope without cutting it through, even though it was shaving sharp.
-
Yup, the "less sharp" blade retained the "microteeth" that made it more effective against fibrous materials. The polished edge couldn't get a bite against the rope, it just slide across the service. It would, however, be superior for pushing through material that didn't require that sawing motion.
Chris
-
I've never tried the strop technique before. I mainly keep my knives working sharp, not razor sharp. May try this with a couple of my kitchen knives that I use for meat... Will any length of leather do? I need to check youtube for an instructional video...
By the way, I usually carry a folder with a combo edge when I'm camping with the Scouts. There's always a need to cut some rope, and the combo edge gets it done quick.
-
My Microtech came with the blade already sharpened almost to a razor edge. The blade material lent itself to sharpening that fine.
I have an Italian stiletto with a stainless steel blade that I've sharpened with stones, but it's still not razor-sharp. Would a strop take it that extra step, or are some types of stainless just too hard to get a really fine edge?
-
My Microtech came with the blade already sharpened almost to a razor edge. The blade material lent itself to sharpening that fine.
I have an Italian stiletto with a stainless steel blade that I've sharpened with stones, but it's still not razor-sharp. Would a strop take it that extra step, or are some types of stainless just too hard to get a really fine edge?
The opposite, it's the really soft blades that you can't get a razor edge on. Harder blades just take longer.
-
There's also the crystalline structure of the steel. Some steels are very fine grained and take a very sharp edge, others with coarser grains, don't get as sharp, but tend to have toothier edges, making them suitable for things other than shaving hair.
BG42, S30V, and O2 are steels I've found to have very fine crystalline structure, making it easier to get that superfine edge (especially O2). I've not been able to get that sort of edge with ATS-34 and 440c.
Chris
-
Yeah, the strop is polishing and aligning the microteeth. Have to be careful to not roll the edge, you can destroy them all and get a shiny blade, sharp-looking that won't cut at all.
The nice thing about a well-shaped edge is you can typically just quickly restrop it back to sharpness as opposed to having to re-hone it. I'm still working on my angles.
-
Wow, who would have figured a razor strop was actually used for a razor. About the only thing my father's got used for was to strop some meat off of my backside when the need arose! :O =D
bob
-
Wow, who would have figured a razor strop was actually used for a razor. About the only thing my father's got used for was to strop some meat off of my backside when the need arose! :O =D
bob
That makes me actually happy that my mother used a wooden spoon. Oooowwwww!!!!
-
That makes me actually happy that my mother used a wooden spoon. Oooowwwww!!!!
As a joke, I trained my youngest daughter to call a large wooden spoon a "wuppin' stick" :D
Chris
-
As a joke, I trained my youngest daughter to call a large wooden spoon a "wuppin' stick" :D
Chris
Trained her with frequent wuppins?
-
Trained her with frequent wuppins?
No wuppins required. :)
Chris
-
an old guy showed me how to use a length of wood as a strop. same basic technique.
-
an old guy showed me how to use a length of wood as a strop. same basic technique.
Yup, align the micro-teeth. Easier and probably "better" with leather and polishing compounds though, depending on the intended use.
-
I use cardboard, side of my boot, knife sheath, butcher steel, strop, porcelain sink, jeans, whatever I can find as a strop.
-
I use cardboard, side of my boot, knife sheath, butcher steel, strop, porcelain sink, jeans, whatever I can find as a strop.
That's good for removing burrs or unrolling an overly fine edge. What I'm talking about is sharpening at a microscopic level.
Again, not needed or necessary for every cutting task.
-
I've used coarse then fine sharpening stones with oil. Is there a step between the stones and the strop?
-
I've used coarse then fine sharpening stones with oil. Is there a step between the stones and the strop?
I'm no expert but it probably depends on how fine is fine. For instance, on my 4-sided strop I can go from verrrrry fine cutting, finer than the white stone in the Spiderco kit, on rough-out leather; to a less cutting, more polishing compound on rough-out,; to polishing compound (which, like any other metal polish, is still technically removing metal, just not in any noticeable way); and finishing on bare smooth side-out leather.
I've used my Spyderco Sharpmaker to get blades "shaving sharp" before, but not like on a strop. I know I've never had my straight razor anything like this with just honing.
That said, I've seen guys make axe blades split hairs lengthwise with just stones so technique is a big part of it.
Compounds are cheap and an old belt glued to a piece of wood make an adequate strop, it's worth trying for yourself.
Lately, after watching a bunch of knife-making videos on youtube, I've started using progressively finer grits of sandpaper on a resiliant backer (old mousepad) for honing my knives with a slight convex edge as opposed to trying to maintain precise angles on the secondary (cutting) bevel free-hand on stones.
It's fast and easy and convex edges maintain functional sharpness really well, even after cutting wood or batoning they will still cut finer things and a quick hit on the strop can bring them back to a razor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQCkKPGSOtA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQCkKPGSOtA)
-
The convex honing thing is quite intriguing. I gave up freehand sharpening a long time ago, because I don't have steady hands or patience, but it always makes me feel inferior to depend on (admittedly basic) technology to sharpen knives. I guess sandpaper and mousepads are also 'technology', but it still sounds cool.
-
A good make your own strop video from a guy in Ohio who makes knives start to finish. these videos get intriguing if you have "prepper" tendencies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkrUZOSlP4o&feature=plcp&context=C3798d33UAOEgsToPDskIzhd8X-8O4WG1pM4b5sgwp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkrUZOSlP4o&feature=plcp&context=C3798d33UAOEgsToPDskIzhd8X-8O4WG1pM4b5sgwp)
-
I butcher my own meat. Just using a diamond stone for my knives works just fine for terrestrial critters. Using ceraminc for fish works better.
I use the diamond stones to get friend's dull fillet knives to sharp then touch up with the ceramic to finish the edge.
-
Yup, the "less sharp" blade retained the "microteeth" that made it more effective against fibrous materials. The polished edge couldn't get a bite against the rope, it just slide across the service. It would, however, be superior for pushing through material that didn't require that sawing motion.
Yeah, I used to take pride in how well I could sharpen. (Hint: take lighter and lighter strokes on whatever medium you're on.)
However, I've found a slightly rougher edge works a lot better in a lot of kitchen-type uses. Seems like the forces are concentrated on the microscopic points or something, as opposed to being distributed along a straight zero-thickness edge.
Mebbe that's why steak knives are almost always serrated nowadays.
Nevertheless, in the shaving thread, I pointed out that stropping a safety razor on newsprint apparently works pretty good.
Terry, 230RN
-
i think steak knives are serrated so only the the tips of the serrations become dull when they come in contact with the plate.
do people regularly use compounds on strops? (oils, polishing/rubbing etc?)
-
That's good for removing burrs or unrolling an overly fine edge. What I'm talking about is sharpening at a microscopic level.
Again, not needed or necessary for every cutting task.
Most of those I agree that's what I'm shooting for, but porcelain and cardboard do take a cut, cardboard has a lot of abrasive in it and can really tune up an edge. I'm getting some strops, probably waterstones and a whole bunch more things, I slowly collect my implements of knife-making. Forge is next month I hope.
-
i think steak knives are serrated so only the the tips of the serrations become dull when they come in contact with the plate.
I've heard that, too.
I used to use and old, wide belt with a hook on the end for hanging onto fridge doors or drawer handles for stropping. It's still hanging in my kitchen on itw own hook, but I never use it anymore except to touch up the small blade on a pocket folder.
-
Most of those I agree that's what I'm shooting for, but porcelain and cardboard do take a cut, cardboard has a lot of abrasive in it and can really tune up an edge. I'm getting some strops, probably waterstones and a whole bunch more things, I slowly collect my implements of knife-making. Forge is next month I hope.
After I posted I was looking at other videos and lo and behold, a guy was demonstrating using bare cardboard as a strop. You might have pointed this out already but he noted anything that will dull a knife can, in theory, sharpen it.