Strop Expectations

[Organic]

I do share your concern. I spent about two hours on the progression which is quite a bit longer than I typically spend on a knife. I also used the 1.4 / 0.6 ceramic stones (also recently acquired) after the 1500 grit diamond rather than going directly to the strops. That could have made a difference as well.

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sksharp, Marc H, wickededge

[Hogdog]

I’ve got nothing to add here except appreciating the knowledge you all are sharing on this thread. I wanted to thank you.

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Marc H

[Cameron]

What is the rational of altering the stop angle relative to the sharpening angle? It seems like increasing it would cause a “micro-strop” while decreasing would cause you to be sharpening behind the edge, and not the edge itself.

[Marc H]

Cameron, watch this YouTube video made by long-time WE user where he explains some stropping theory. It should help you gain some insight in the need to lower the angle while stropping.

Marc
(MarcH's Rack-Its)

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NickedEdge, wickededge, Organic

[sksharp]

I started with the WE a little over a year ago and shortly there after started playing with the angles while stropping. The conventional theory was back off 2 degs. I do back of 2 degs. with leather and use a heavy pressure on some. Since Clay’s earlier post I have done a couple at the same angle as the sharpened angle and with less pressure and found the same result as I found early on. It refines the blade very quickly and then starts to lose a little when to much pressure is used. By backing off the pressure the results were astonishing. The trade off? It takes a lot more time but you can achieve results that are, well, astonishing to me at least. Now I’m trying to determine if the edges are going to be more durable as well. I would encourage everyone to play with the stropping methods and techniques. I’ve spent more time on stropping than I have on sharpening I think and it seems to me that for every answer I come with, 2 or 3 more questions and variables come into play. The sharpening aspect has certain methods and techniques that pretty much work as expected pretty much every time. Strops….not so much!

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NickedEdge, wickededge, Organic, Marc H

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