Thread: strop scratches

Originally Posted by mdarnton

Three of the leather strops are new, real commercial strops. One of them I sanded down, just to see if there was something caught in it. Of the bunch, I think that my belt does the cleanest job.

I think this may be the culprit, especially if you are seeing an obvious new scratch pattern. I finish on a very fine stone & sometimes I see a random scratch from the strop but not to the degree you describe.

Have you checked after the CrO also ? Strop scratches will also run in the opposite direction to stone scratches. Just something else to check.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Have you checked after the CrO also ? Strop scratches will also run in the opposite direction to stone scratches. Just something else to check.

I have chromed on glass, just to avoid contamination, to the point where there are no scratches at all, and then stropped and watched the scratches form. As I said, on fresh newspaper, too.

How do these scratches affect the edge ? Any visible damage ? Shave test bad ?
Leather does contain silicates so scratches would be obvious on a highly polished bevel but hard for us to get an idea of what you're seeing without microscope pics.