Roo strops

[Josh Berresheim]

Should I rough up the roo strops with 400 grit sandpaper?

[Mark76]

No. :cheer: Why were you asking?

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

[Josh Berresheim]

I have been reading posts where guys were conditioning strops with sandpaper.

[Steven N. Bolin]

I have been reading posts where guys were conditioning strops with sandpaper.

Haha. Yeah, I’m likely one of the guys you’re referring to. It All depends on the stropping material imho. I probably wouldn’t worry too much about it with the kangaroo leather, mainly because it seems to naturally be an ideal material for stropping knives.

The balsa I QUICKLY hit with the 400 grit was simply to get the surface area as uniform as possible.

The way I look at it is – Are all the variables individually tuned to where when it’s time to bring them all together, they work synergistically (?) and maximize results – Or, I think of the process of creating a putting green from start to finish.

Who knows, maybe this is absurd and an irrelevant concern in this particular instance… Either way… I can’t help it. 😉

[Mark76]

I know of guys using both the rough side and the smooth side of cow leather strop. I’ve never done it, but I’m told the rough side also leaves rougher edges.

The reason roo leather is so great for stropping is that it’s so smooth and that it contains very little silicates by itself. That makes it ideal material for stropping with very fine compounds.

And the final reason I’d never sand a leather strop is that if only one (part of a) particle of the sand paper would remain in the strop, it would destroy the edges you’re stropping with.

But I’ve never tried sanding a leather strop myself, maybe I’m just too pessimistic. You may want to give it a try and let us know your results.

Molecule Polishing: my blog about sharpening with the Wicked Edge

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