Thread: Can I use my strop to sharpen my pocket knife

I have a little sabre pocket knife. i was going to use my strop to sharpen it, but the blade isn't the smoothest. I didn't want to nick the strop. Is my assumption correct?

I wouldn't try that. I would expect you might scratch the strop at the very least. Maybe not with a spear or sheepfoot but a clip blade would be dangerous. You can do it on your shoe/boot or even the palm of the hand...... carefully.

That would be a better use for an old belt than a good strop. You would need to have quite a nice edge on that knife already before a strop would be of service anyway.

I will tell you my grandfather uses the strop his father left him to sharpen pocket knives. He still has the straight razor as well but is afraid to use it. His is a paddle strop though and I don't think I would try it with a hanging one.

Put the strop upside down on a flat surface and use the back (flesh) side for non-razor stropping. Your knife will never know the difference and your razor(s) will remain happy.

Yea, I wouldn't think a strop would do anything for most knives out there.

Originally Posted by Bruce

Put the strop upside down on a flat surface and use the back (flesh) side for non-razor stropping.
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+1.

Most of my knives seem to respond a bit quicker to the flesh side of my leather strops. I mostly use a separate leather strop for knife use. The skin side is quite easy to scratch up if the knife point is at all acute.

Most carvers use strops on their detail knives every 15-20 minutes while carving. The strops are paddle strops and almost always pasted with something around .5-.75 micron.

To strop a knife blade with a flat grind (like a swiss army knife), just lay it flat on the strop and rotate the blade as you draw it so that the edge between the belly and tip of the blade is also drawn across the leather about 90 degrees to the direction of travel. Use a light pressure - and THIN leather, or the blade will sink in and get rounded. If the knife is saber ground (ie: half way up there is a big corner), then keep the part between the edge and the corner flat against the strop instead of the whole blade.

I can strop all my knives with a hanging strop without scratching it with the belly (which protrudes a little when you angle the blade), BUT, I also used a paddle strop for many years first. Also, I find that knife edges round MUCH easier with a hanging strop due to the 3-4 times greater pressure you must use with a knife blade (compared to a razor) in order to get the blade to sink in enough that the small secondary bevel on the edge of the blade to contact the strop. For knife sharpeners, 3-4 times the pressure you use for you razor is still considered light (6-8 is probably the upper limit of light).

If you regrind the face of the blade flat against the stone until the secondary bevel is gone, then the need for more pressure disappears and a hanging strop works fine (and the knife cuts with 2-3 times less effort)- but your edge doesn't last very long cutting wood anymore. For most carvers, this is an acceptable trade off and "standard practice". It doesn't work well for general use knives though since they will now become noticeably dull pretty quickly. (Carvers just strop 30-45 seconds every 15 minutes).

I sharpen knives for the guys in work, free of course. One of them made me a little leather paddle, with a tool belt, and some backing...The tool belt is clearly cowhide. It does seem to smooth the edge, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it sharpens it...I've been doing that for about 15 years now...a little paste on there may help but, the blade coming off the stones can shave arm hair, so there impressed none the less....

Sometimes I use these old really big Nortons that are in work...and sometimes I use a set of pocket Arkies, Soft, Hard, Translucent and Black...I also brought a Coti combo bout too if I'm in the mood...I work in Maintenance, so no one thinks this is odd behavior.
It actually saves them money, because some guys were throwing out their pocket tools when the knives became damaged or very dull...They figure we'd give them a new one. I do purchasing. Some sharpen their own blades.

In the film Inglorious Basterds, there is a scene where Hugo Stiglitz uses a strop to sharpen his knife. I dont know how relevant it is, but at 28 seconds in you can see it:

YouTube - Inglourious Basterds - 'Fightin' In A Basement'