Newbie Strop Help

Welcome to the Wicked Edge forum Jordanzwon1,

Stropping is a skill set all unto itself….that said, strops work differently then sharpening stones.  The diamond abrasives are affixed and stationary with sharpening stones. Where as, with strops the abrasives are mixed into strop compounds that are simply applied onto the strop’s surface.  These diamonds are neither affixed or stationary.  The stropping abrasives applied to the leather strop may become embedded into the leather surface.  Even still the abrasives can roll and slide across the leather as the strops are used on the knife edge.

The strop abrasives cause more of a burnishing effect.  Burnishing is seen as a polishing or smoothing over of the steel surface.  All of the strop compounds are made with relatively small abrasive particles of fine grits.  Even the most coarse stropping compounds.  I like to think about stropping by itself.  It doesn’t really matter too much to align the strop medium grit progressions with the sharpening progression.  We can use a strop succession of medium fine, to fine and then to ultrafine grit stropping compounds following any sharpening session.

I always finish any knife I’m sharpening with stropping.  I prefer to use at least the 4µ/2µ diamond emulsion spray compound pair on leather strops.  This gives me a good balance between smoothing and polishing.   This simple two grit strop progression enhances sharpness and smooths the cutting edge and bevel shoulders to provide easier penetration and passing through the substrate being cut.  I may follow this up with a second strop paddle with the 1µ/0.5µ strop compound pair if I’m seeking a more polished appearance.

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