Thread: Finding the perfect edge. Yeah right.

Finally.... Its been hit on the head.! "The strop"
All the honing in the world doesn't matter, if its not stroped right. The edge doesn't end at the hone, it stops at the strop. IMHO

Which is why I think you don't need anything finer than a 8k stone.

A strop, some chromium oxide is a much cheaper substitute to a 20k stone.

Originally Posted by Badgister

Which is why I think you don't need anything finer than a 8k stone.

A strop, some chromium oxide is a much cheaper substitute to a 20k stone.

Tell me about it.
My progression goes Naniwa 1,5,10 the shaves I get from the 10k are phenomenal. A few licks on some CroOx and im as happy as can be. My Gok doesn't see much action except for some super hard Japanese straights and my naturals come out when I have the time.

Originally Posted by outback

Finally.... Its been hit on the head.! "The strop"
All the honing in the world doesn't matter, if its not stroped right. The edge doesn't end at the hone, it stops at the strop. IMHO

I stopped obsessing over stones a long time ago (though I still love stones), and invested in some strops. I have two pieces of leather and 4 pieces of linen or felt.

If I can polish my knives with super steels on these things (which I can), my straights don’t stand a chance!



I do voodoo on those things! Good voodoo! Sharp voodoo lol!

Edit - hmmm, maybe I should wash them (not the felt) now that I look at them in this pic.

In the bigging of this thread, i was talking in general but, i had one blade that had just come off the stone and it fit the bill. Sense then ive stropped it on the leaded strop. (Lead sent to me by Shartptonn) then cleaned it off, stropped on linen and leather and found it a smoother edge. So im now starting to lean towards stropping being the answer. Ive got a CROX coated strop, but i just didnt like the thought that i was trying to sharpen a little more on a strop. It just dont feel right to me. The hone does the sharpening IMO, and the strop finishes the edge.
I got carried away a year ago and own 12 or 13 strops. Counting leather and linen. A few are coated but i just never felt good about using them. I will put the leaded strop to more use and continue w8th this. Its possible that tbis is what i was looking for. I want to buy a Thuri some day but for now i will hold off and stick with strops.

I don’t think using a coated strop to fine tune an edge is cheating anymore than the old guys’ using a barber hone or a coated strop to maintain an edge between going to the stones would be. They are all part of the process.

the Europeans have been using a loaded strop longer than we have been a country, any thing from Chimney black, to modern pastes, people didn't have all these stones ,, your actually doing it the way its been done for eons

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

the Europeans have been using a loaded strop longer than we have been a country, any thing from Chimney black, to modern pastes, people didn't have all these stones ,, your actually doing it the way its been done for eons

I started by using those Dovo pastes on balsa. That really worked great for me too! Smoother than diamond, that’s for sure. Just not as sharp me thinks.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

the Europeans have been using a loaded strop longer than we have been a country, any thing from Chimney black, to modern pastes, people didn't have all these stones ,, your actually doing it the way its been done for eons

Here's a couple of 'recipes' from The Whitehouse Cook Book. 1887 Edition;

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Here's a couple of 'recipes' from The Whitehouse Cook Book. 1887 Edition;

How do you find such esoteric stuff so quickly?