Balsa wood strop angle

[Ronald Cindia]

Hello all! I usually bring my leather stroping angle 2 degrees in on both sides but I got some balsa wood strops and was wondering should I stay with the same angle as the stones or should I bring it in 1 degree on both sides? Thanks!

[Ronald Cindia]

I use a decent amount of pressure while stroping also

[tcmeyer]

Of course, the difference in angle is to compensate for the compliability of the leather and I don’t have anything but my pre-pubescent years of model airplane building (OMG! Would you believe sixty years ago?) to draw on as a reference. I’d try the 2 degree drop. Then, if it looks like the bevel isn’t polishing near the apex, I’d try the one-deg setting. Or something in between if it makes sense to you.

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this discussed here before. Did you do a search?

OK, I did a quick search and found that LukasPop and Quodaddy99 both set back only 0.5 degrees for balsa. So there you go!

Here’s a link to “Stropping angles”

http://www.wickededgeusa.com/forum/9-basic-techniques-and-sharpening-strategies/12910-stropping-angles#16991

[Mark76]

Tom is right. I compensate half a degree when stropping with balsa, too. Although it does depend a bit on the amount of pressure you use.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Ronald Cindia]

Thanks!

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