Thread: Stropping question

Originally Posted by DZEC

Keep both the spine and the edge on the strop. For a wedge, you should keep the strop taut to avoid rolling the edge. Go SLOW until you have managed to consistently keep that razor positioned correctly.

If the strop is an inexpensive one, you might have some grain to the surface that cause a different sound in one direction.

You might have some debris on the strop. Do you have a fabric strop for pre-stropping before hitting the leather? That helps avoid contaminating the leather with anything that might still be on your blade from previous use.

Rub the strop with the palm of your hand until the leather feels warm. That will add some good oils to the leather and warm up the surface for stropping. It will also let you know if there is any crud on the surface that should be dealt with.

When my strop requires cleaning, I use a very light application of saddle soap and let it dry thoroughly before using it again/

Thanks for the advice. It’s a cheap strop without a canvass side.

Originally Posted by Elnones

Thanks for the advice. It’s a cheap strop without a canvass side.

A clean piece of denim glued on corrugated cardboard will work. The cardboard provides enough “give” to simulate the feel of a leather strop.

In fact, some folks use denim as a medium for creating a pasted strop for extra fine finish honing using chromium oxide or CBN.