Thread: newspaper stopping A++

I worked 30 years in a postal plan as a technician and I had to replace many pieces of metal because of the letters that were making grooves into the metal and also making some parts as sharp as a knife. I know because I cut myself a couple of times on these metal parts...

So yes, paper is abrasive. From what I learned on a wood carving forum, paper is a good last step for carving knives and the ink serves as a lubricant. But I never used leather without compound on my knives, so I don't know how it compare to paper for stropping.

It seems that everything I learn about stropping a staright will serve me for my wood carving knives

Gilles

I've used paper for finish stropping blades for many, many years and have recommended it for a number of years here and back when I was running a forum of my own. Almost ANY paper works, but newspaper is both cheap and very well suited. Even white printer paper will work, but... again, I think newspaper is just about ideal. It's also great for polishing mirrors. Paper is more agressive than leather and years ago I used to polish my hunting knife edges with cardboard and paper because it was much faster and more effective than using bare leather.

There are many, many ways to create a bevel and refine it and this is just one very nice tool to have in the old arsenal. Paper with chrome oxide also works great and for many, many years, an insider tip among banknote engravers was to polish their gravers to a brilliant mirror polish by scribbling on paper with a common #2 pencil as a polishing surface. The graphite in the pencil is a incredibly slick and makes the paper polish like the dickens.

I'm glad to see this method is catching on because it's a very effective thing to understand and be able to apply. Think of all the tips and tricks of honing as just different tools in the toolbelt. The goal is "merely" to create a bevel, tweak the geometry if you want, and then polish the edge to as nearly zero radius as possible.

(the following is for beginners - the pros already know this)...........

To do this, you've got ceramic hones, laps, compounds, microabrasive grits, waterstones, natural stones, oil stones, diamond hones, felt, paper, leather and believe it or not, even plastic to work with. For that matter, you can hone on glass, copper, tin, aluminum and cast iron. Ceramic, copper, tin and cast iron are all very, very popular as lapping disks for gemstones with assorted abrasive media.

To be an expert at honing is simple in it's very essence.

(1) Learn and understand edge geometry. What edge geometry is best for different tasks and different steels.

(2) Learn and understand about different abrasives and media and how they affect the shaping of steel (and anything else, for that matter).

(3) Use what you learned to select and apply an EFFECTIVE media and method for the stage of the edge geometry formation/finishing that you are seeking to accomplish.

This is very basic, but it's very good to understand what these basics are and then build on them. Knowing what they are helps you know what to learn.

It works great indeed but I wouldn't use it to shave right away since newspaper ink is toxic and it could irritate your skin.

Thanks to this thread my razor is much smoother/sharper. I used 100 laps on newspaper attached to balsa wood, 40 on 3" SRD ribbed fabric followed by 60 on Latigo. Worked great. Before this I was using only the SRD strop and when the razor felt dull would use the barber hone followed by .5 then .3 then .1 micron chromium and ferrous oxides on balsa wood. Now after doing this I will go to the newspaper as the next step. But so far the razor has been staying sharp just using the newspaper and strop. Thanks for a great/economical tip that really works well.

Originally Posted by VDX

It works great indeed but I wouldn't use it to shave right away since newspaper ink is toxic and it could irritate your skin.

After stropping on leather, there wouldn't be enough newspaper ink on the razor to be a problem even if was toxic as curare. If your skin doesn't break out when you pick up a newspaper to read, I wouldn't worry about the toxicity of any residue from that ink that might be left on a razor's edge after newspaper stropping.

That's an interesting method, it would be harder to damage the strop with this method

Mastro Livi does hand stropping:
YouTube - SnakeRazor