Thread: Skin as strop

Once I met Ed Fowler knife maker extraordinaire while buying a knife from him at a show 10 years ago (Pronghorn). His outlook on maintenance of a knife was funny and influenced me. When I asked him what to use to keep the blade from corrosion, he rubbed his nose and said nose grease works well. When I asked him about stropping, he replied that skin is a good strop in the field. Ed is definitely a "knife user" kind of guy, which influenced me a lot.

most of the time now after stropping a finished blade, I finish stropping it on skin after leather. Large blade on my upper thigh (ahm, need to be in shorts), small blades on my palm. This has always given me superlative refinement of the edge it seems. When stropping on my palm I can feel the smoothing of the edge as I strop. Works well for me on razors too.

Does anyone here do the same? (havent cut a main artery as of yet..knock on wood)


PS (shoot..wrong section of forum..sorry..im learnin)

Moved to strop forum as that looks like where ya wanted it PM me if you wanted it someplace else....
Re-direct left from newbies forum

And no I haven't tried skin for stropping as of yet, however I have heard of people using their palm in a pinch, as well as denim jeans....

Thank you kindly! just where I wanted it..I later realized..

An old barber tell me that he stropped on he's palm many times while shaving. I tried this method and working well.
But if you are new to stropping then I advice you to try to not cut the strop first then after you stop cutting your strop, try on your hand, but slowly.

Maestro Livi does the same (palm stroping) in the video recently posted here.

Jordan

I've heard of skin stroping in numerous places. Some use their forearm. I've seen my barber so it to some blades I brought to show him. AAlso heard of people skin stroping when money was tight but I have yet to try it.

Originally Posted by thewap

When I asked him what to use to keep the blade from corrosion, he rubbed his nose and said nose grease works well. When I asked him about stropping, he replied that skin is a good strop in the field. Ed is definitely a "knife user" kind of guy, which influenced me a lot.

Sorry, I gotta ask. Was the "nose grease" from the inside or outside of his nose?

Originally Posted by Utopian

Sorry, I gotta ask. Was the "nose grease" from the inside or outside of his nose?

Are you suggesting it was no skin off of his nose?

Although I have no formal training in the field, I am an amateur herpetologist and have done a lot of fieldwork in some pretty unhospitable places, and I can testify that skin stropping, for me the palm and the forearm, work very well in less than ideal conditions. Also, the back of an A5 notepad is a pretty good substitute for the canvas.
Can't help with the nose grease question though.
Regards,
Alex

I strop on my palm and forearm while removing stubble from the razor. It seems to help keep the edge tuned up during the shave.

I strop knives the same basic way when my pocket hone's case isn't handy (avatar).