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I was wondering if stropping a knife is the same as stropping a razor? In that I mean do you lay the spine on the strop, or do you need to match the grind of the knife. I have stropped a few kitchen knives, but they seam about the same or a little duller then when I started. I used the "razor technique" where you lay the spine down then roll it at the end of each pass
Red
I use different strops for knives, not the same strops for my razors. My knives are much rougher than my razors in construction, especially the spine of my knives.
Most all my edges on knives are convex bevels, lying them flat on a strop will do little to no help on the edge. I raise the spine & loosen the tension.
No let me finish with, "I'm no expert in stropping knives or razors." :shrug:
What is the steel and heat treat? Some knifes don't do well with stropping. And you may not want a fine edge for each application
I strop using the angle of the bevel normally, same angle I sharpen, but that's just me.
Angle of the bevel.
I angle the blade so as to closely match the bevel. I use my razor strop for my knives, too; I find them completely compatible.
Being that really fine razor strops are expensive to get I will Not put any knife to mine UNless, the knife has gone through my stone progression, which is rarely to get to the finishers.
My thinking is that the coarser stones may leave grit and metal particles that could damage a razor.
When I get to posting pics, I'll post a Bow strop I made and use for knives, the same principle would work well for razors too, you'll see, the tension is Always the same.
Yes please do. I would be interested in seeing a bow strop, and possibly making one if it is not difficult.Quote:
Originally Posted by FAL
Not sure about steels, or heat treats. Two of the knives are Spanish made Henckels kitchen knives and the other is an old Case paring knife my parents had. They are all stainless I believe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rami
red
My strop has New Era MF'G CO. 476 B'Way N.Y stamped on it. Cost me 2 bucks at an estate sale, so I am not too worried about tearing it up. Also don't have a razor to strop yet( have a Kinfolks, but it needs honing).
red
Steel might be too soft for stropping to make it better. How did you sharpen them?Quote:
Originally Posted by redtruck
The Case, my buddy did on his Ken Onion Work Sharp. The other two are factory I believe.
Ok. I am assuming you are not loading the strop ( diamond spray or paste or whatever)
If so, it's unlikely to work, at least for kitchen knives. I would also recommend against it.
It's unlikely to work as I suspect the edge angle is too wide and rough.
It not recommended because if you reduce the angle you edge will not take kindly to being smacked on the board. See rolled edges.
I will try to get some pics up of the strop RedTruck, if you have a buffer or spindles to put on a drive motor, ebay has the paper wheel/compound sharpeners that kick azz on dull knives, they were about $20 and shipping, boy do they work slick and Fast, be dang careful though.
no not loading the strop. My buddy did use green paste on his strop on the Case knife.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rami
Different. Knives bevel angles are not predefined as with razors. So when yo strop you have to hold the knife at angles consistent with the bevel angle, whatever it is.Quote:
Originally Posted by redtruck
For stropping knives, large paddle strops, leather glued to a MDF base work well, as does Sail Cloth, Polyester Canvas with paste, or a honing jig for smaller knives, I like the Edge Pro.
As said you do have to hold the knife flat on the bevel, larger knives are easier to free hand because of the larger bevels.
Do be careful with grinders, you can waste a lot of knife with those quickly. You can get good result with an inexpensive clamp on edge guide and stone. Finish at 1k for most kitchen work.
It is my understanding from some of the knife sharpening sites that you strop the blade angle, which is basically the same that is going on when you strop a razor, you are still hitting the cutting edge.
I use a bench strop. As for how I hold the knife it depends on the bevel. When I reprofile the bevel the bevel is flat so for that I match the angle, but with free hand sharpening after awhile the bevel tends to become convex. After that I hold it pretty close the edge with a little pressure so it follows the convex to get the edge. Sounds confusing how I wrote it, but hopefully it makes sense.
Hanging strop for razors, bench strop for knives in my case. With razors, slack controls the angle, with knives angle of the blade as held controls the angle. So for knives, plywood is cut to a desired dimension and vegetable tanned leather is cut to fit and applied to the plywood with double-sided cold-press adhesive (obtainable in a decent art-supply store). Four-five pads are placed on the underside of the plywood to lift it off the bench--then strop away! Vegetable-tanned belting leather can also be sanded to 120x-180x to gain some tooth for loading with a pasted abrasive.
Thanks everyone for all hints.
Red