Bark River Strop Angle
- This topic has 6 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 03/13/2018 at 3:03 pm by
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Welcome to the Wicked Edge Forum and our community of sharpeners, mcgrupp.
Generally it’s recommended that you strop a knife by lowering the angle you sharpened the knife at, by 1º to 2º on each side. So if you sharpened the knife at say 20º bevel angle per side, measured with the digital angle cube, I would strop at 19º or 18º angle setting. The thought many have is the stiffer and harder the stropping medium then less of an angle reduction is needed. I strop strictly with cow leather strops. This leather is fairly thick and pliable so it tends to curve or wrap up around the edge so a 2º angle reduction seems to be a good setting to give you the best mix of sharpening/ polishing and no edge loss or edge rounding over.
Those that use balsa wood strops, a harder stiffer material may not decrease the angle at all. Those using Kangaroo leather strops, a thinner leather so there is less “give” only lower the set angle by maybe 1º.
Stropping is a technique/art unto itself. The results you achieve depend on factors like the stropping medium, (discussed above), the amount of pressure applied, how many strokes and the abrasive used on the strops. I generally use 4µ followed with 2µ diamond emulsion stropping compound on cow leather strops at 2º lowered set angle and moderate pressure. Remember always strop with edge trailing, up and away, direction strokes. Always wipe the knife blade clean with a soft cloth, I also use rubbing alcohol, before stropping and between the different strop grits.
Marc
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Thanks for the welcome, MarcH. I’ve been reading and gaining so much information from you an Organic’s posts. Thank you!
Yes, I understand the 20* to 18* stone to strop. My dilemma is since I never put stones to them, and would rather not, I don’t know what angle to start my stropping at.
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I was wondering if that was the case. My answer is the general technique. I hope someone with personal experience may wade in and answer your specific question. You may try to “Google” the specific Bark River Knife Model bevel angle to get an answer. Also, some knife manufacturers and knife sellers list the blade stats on their websites. Then go from there. Good luck and welcome.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)1 user thanked author for this post.
I looked Bark River up on the Wicked Edge Knowledge Base and found 20º-22º from a sharpeners experience. So I’d strop at 18º or 19º. Try to inspect it under a bright light to see how close you’re getting to the knife edge.
Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)BRK convex edges are supposed to only need a strop from time to time. Since I’m new at this, rather than me trashing the edges I thought to ask.
18-19 sounds like it should work just fine. I’ll use my Dinolite to get a precise visual. Thanks, again.
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Here is the deal with convex edges and why most manufacturers say a convex edge is better. At least in my mind.
They can tell you that they sharpened the blade at 20 deg., and that is where they set the machine to sharpen it, but when you intentionally sharpen for a convex edge you do it on a slack belt sander. That rounds the bevel and depending on how slack the belt is and how much pressure you apply determines how much the bevel is rounded. If the machine, or the person, is set up at 20 degs. the actual cutting edge is probably at a 22 to 25 deg. angle making the edge tougher and they can say they sharpened at 20 deg. and they did, technically speaking at least. Bark River does their sharpening by hand on belt sanders and their angles aren’t much better than most other knives on the market.
You just are not going to find many knives at all with accurate or even bevels the full length of the blade like we can produce with the WE. I think until you are ready to profile the knife at 20 deg. or whatever you decide, that hand stropping it or steeling it to maintain the knife until you decide to profile it to the WE. I think it’s unlikely that the bevel will be the same angle the length of the blade and make it difficult to just strop it until you have sharpened it on the WE.
Just one man’s opinion!
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