How to strop beginners guide. Shortcut to hair whittling sharp!
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- Опубликовано: 24 мар 2022
- This is a short guide for beginners with some of my own tricks and advice on how to strop. It's really easy to ruin your edge stropping so it's critical to either get this stage done right or just not do it at all.
Get compounds and strops at stroppystuff.com/
Check out the Science of Sharp website scienceofsharp.com/
Thank you, straight forward and to the point, just getting into sharpening and your videos are great to learn and enjoy.
You are like o'be uahn canobi! You are a Jedi master, wow! Big thumbs up
excellent!
Great video! You have fantastic technique. One thing to note about bare leather (which I think Todd actually touches on in his writings, but I can't seem to locate the post at the moment): veg tanned leather and chrome tanned leather are not the same beast when it comes to stropping. Flesh side chrome tanned deer leather on a paddle strop with no compound works really well and also doesn't load up, which is nice. I imagine the chromium oxide (Chromium (III)) used in the tanning process is what is doing the heavy lifting there. The chrome tanned deer hide has a light blue tint and is quite supple. Very pleasant to work with.
Thanks Paul, very kind. Yes you're dead right about chrome vs veg tanned but I've actually found it very difficult to even source chrome tanned in the UK and it's difficult to fit everything into a single video :)
@@stroppystuff641 Interesting! I would guess that is because much of it here in the southern US is from hunting. Deer hunting is quite common here and most of the local processors have the hides chrome tanned. If you even get curious, let me know and I can send you some. Excellent videos! Keep them coming!
7:53 made me laugh out loud. Sheesh that's great
My criticism on your comments about bare leather: a bare leather strop does indeed not polish or grind, but it does (partially) knock off the burr while straightening the edge, without much risk to mess up the apex. A bare leather strop is like a very friendly honing rod, being useful for in-between tune-ups in 10 seconds tops.
It won't straighten the edge unless you're talking about 200+ full laps, check the Science of Sharp website linked in the description, you can see SEM images of this. Regarding tearing off the burr, this will damage the apex and it's best to abrade it. Check my latest video on edge retention if you want to see about that
Great demonstration! Impressive results for sure. What is the steel in that knife?
Thank you :) It's a cru-wear PM2
Just re-watching this, (yet again 😂),,
I think the "easy option" is buying basswood, or balsa, from a hobbycraft store, simply buy the size you want, and cut to length,,
Much easier than sourcing decent leather, and glueing to a suitable piece of wood,,
(obviously the basswood /balsa needs flattening,) I've been using 1200 grit, wet and dry, laid on a flat piece of glass, to "prepare" the wood....
Top tip...(pun intended)
Whenever I go to our local household waste disposal centre, (the tip)
I pop in to the container where people put refrigerators, and "borrow" the glass shelves,,, they're perfectly flat, have chamfered edges, and are made of toughened safety glass,,,
I did ask permission once, ages ago, and the guy said "help yourself, take as many as you like," , ,,
Cheers,,, John....
Yes basswood is by far the easiest option in my opinion too! It's the cheapest and in my opinion the best, but I am working on some other substrates at the moment. I think I'm going to run a little project where I'll release batches of strops with a "prototype" substrate and give a handful away and sell the rest. Encourage everyone to test them out and post a little write up or a review somewhere so we can all learn about them
@@stroppystuff641
Thanks again, for the doublestuff,, seems fantastic, I've tried it out on a little Fallkniven LTC,
(laminated steel), and it seemed to work great, also, easy to clean with a pencil eraser,, (see, I am learning,, lol...)
All the best,,,
@@John..18 Pencil eraser is king 😃
Felt Strops for Knives in the Rock Hard category is one of the very best materials you can use for razor sharp knives.
yeah I've tried making some felt strops recently but they were a little too "fuzzy" for me, I just didn't like the stropping feel. I'm going to have to get into straight razors and see how it works for them
I love your *tips* (they're great *points*)! I need to try some different stuff since you have corrected some things I do.
Any tips for deburring a stubborn edge that won't seem to give up without just hopping sides?
Thank you!
1. I'd suggest flipping the burr side to side multiple times before going for full removal. (this is a big one)
2. try and keep the burr small, don't let it grow too large.
3. when deburring make sure you use ultra light pressure so that you don't reform a new one on the other side. (this is super important too).
4. Give it a few passes on a strop
5. if all else fails go for a micro bevel
Do everything you can possibly do to remove the burr without tearing it off during cutting as this will damage the apex.
If you're still having trouble Spyderco UF (stones or rod) is great to deburr on or mico bevel. It's $20 well spent.
Good luck!
If the burr is quite large, after you break it off you may want to hit the stones again, depending on which stone you're moving on to next. Imagine flipping the burr from side to side until it breaks, and imagine bending a paperclip back and forth until it breaks. Once you break the paperclip, you can notice the spot that broke isn't the only place that is now weakened. On the same principle, if you've formed a rather large burr and are flipping it from side to side on a very fine stone, you may remove the burr but NOT remove the damaged steel at the apex that was connected to the burr. However if you developed the burr on a 300 grit stone and you are moving on to a 600 grit stone, that should remove all the fatigued steel and give you another chance to develop a much smaller burr. Mirroring what stroppystuff said, you want the burr to be as small as possible. The benefits of this (increased edge retention) are hard to notice in normal use (not a scientific testing setting), but they are real.
If a burr is large and extremely pesky, one unique thing I like to do is this: I have a piece of basswood (any medium density wood is fine) loaded with 40 micron dry diamond powder. A few passed per side will remove the burr. Then I can go back to the stone and try not to form such a large burr (also, interestingly, the 40 micron edge isn't half bad). If you think the burr is gone but you aren't sure, do a pass on a leather strop, if this results in leaving any roughed up marks on the leather, you know there is a burr. If the burr seems very small and you're almost finished stropping, you may be able to strop it away. But if it is large, you may have to backtrack.
As stroppystuff said the microbevel can work as well, and that targets the apex more directly, which can aid in removing any fatigued steel.
Thanks much for the video, i learnt a lot. I Always used just learher and too much pressure. Could you please tell me what scales you have on that PM2? The knife looks crazy good with them. Thanks again
I'm glad you found it useful! The PM2 is the Cruwear and Micarta version. It's a production run with comes with these scales from the factory. It looks awesome!
I am waiting for my StroppyStuff one micron liquid
When/where did you order? If you ordered direct then I can check the tracking for you
Nice how to video. What properties make basswood and balsa strop material as opposed to any other wood?
You can really strop on almost any substrate when applying compound to it. Basswood is particularly good because of the weave of wood fibers exposing and holding the diamond particles at a given depth. It's also much more dense than balsa which Stops you from having the same issues as leather (it deforms with pressure). Things like MDF can often have abrasive particles stuck in it from the manufacturing process so are best avoided. The feedback from basswood is also very good in my opinion, there is just enough give in the wood for me to be able to feel the contact of the bevel touching the wood, if it's too soft this feeling is subdued, if it's too hard and glassy smooth it's also hard for me to distinguish. Going back to how the properties actually affect the edge, due to the amount of diamond exposed based on the fibers, it can have as much or more effect than actually changing grit size. You can have a progression of stropping substrates rather than grit sizes if desired. You can read really in-depth information about this over on Science of Sharp on the "loaded stropping" articles
That is why if only using leather without a compound it has to be cased first. Casing the leather has been used for centuries, it was how all the old barbers strops were treated. Also chrome tanned leather is the least desirable. At least use vegetable tanned leather.
Nothing happens dude. They'd be there for years trying to get an edge
Great video thanks. I have a 0.92 micron ceramic stone can I use that to finish the edge instead of a strop?
Certainly! You don't need a strop, it just makes things a bit easier 👍
Bro, do you even use your knives? I mean, that's a mean polish on that Paramilitary 2 edge but I find a toothier edge to be more practical in every day use. I love that S technique you're using btw, I gotta try that
Most of my knives are beaten to hell and back 😂. if you look at my other videos I've got a brutalised k390 delica which people always criticize for being in such bad shape 🤷♂️. Thanks for the feedback on the stropping technique though 👍
Another excellent video! I picked up another bad habit I have thanks to you. I suspect I overdo the stropping some times. I have noticed that I occasionally have an edge that immediately grabs the skin of my finger pads, but then I strop too long/too hard and I loose that bite. The knife is still shaving sharp, but will no longer easily grab something like the skin of a tomato. Thank you for great content! The sharpening journey is so fun! 😁 I should probably pick up a 1 micron spray. Which one do you recommend?
Glad you're finding them helpful! Over stropping is so easy to do, you've got to be careful 👍. I'd suggest you try my 0.5 um as it will abrade slower and make it harder to over strop than the 1um. Alternatively you could try Gunny Juice which is also good. You can get mine or Gunny on Gritomatic if you're in the US
Is it possible to get your stuff in Europe?
@@sharamkh check the "Where to buy" section of my site. Sharpeningstones.de and sharpinator.de 👍
@@stroppystuff641 Thanks! About to put in an order now. I might as well buy two different microns since I’m paying the same shipping anyway 😁 Which two microns would you recommend?
@@sharamkh 4um if you want to mirror polish things. 1um or 0.5 if you want a single compound only or 1&0.25 or 0.5&0.25 if you want a pair. I'd probably say 1um & 0.25 as that's what I use mostly
Assuming you recommend doing 1 micron to start as the first bottle of emulsion? Just getting into sharpening, honing and stopping again so want to try this just not sure which to get first. I am looking at your product on the hapstone website.
Thanks!
Absolutely 1um is the way to go for a generic use compound. Plenty of extra refinement Vs finishing on stones which most people have, removes remnants of burr fast, recovers sharpness fast, can leave a good mirror under indoor lighting and slightly faded mirror in bright sunlight. Let me know if you have any other questions 👍
@@stroppystuff641 thank you! I’ve got your 1 micron in my shopping cart there. Just debating what else I want to add from it on the site
Thanks!!!!!!_
@@stroppystuff641 me again!!!!
About to order some 1micron stroppy stuff now. I do have a few free hand/bench and belt strops which I plan on experimenting with- but also want to get one for my TSPROF along with a strop for it
Do you recommend leather or wood for that? And if wood, what kind? I’m seeing alder, oak, balsa, etc etc :). Assuming balsa? I do plan on getting a leather 6x1 too
Thanks again!
@@joshuarosenblatt hello again! It's personal preference really. I like basswood/lime wood which is like a harder version of balsa. The bass and balsa fibers hold the abrasive really well, oak was fine too, but in my opinion it's a preference thing
Hey I am a cook who loves low alloy stainless knives such as aeb-l and finish them in green brick of joy (2000 grit) what micron compound would you suggest? 4?1?
Hey man! Sorry for the super late reply. I personally always suggest 1um, it's a great middle ground, super fast for removing burr remnants, keeping a blade cutting and getting it keener than fresh off the stones.
@@stroppystuff641 lol i already got purple 3?4? micron but next one i will get 1 micron than!
4um is good too man, you can't go wrong in that range. Are you UK based? If so I'll send you a little 1um sample out
@@stroppystuff641 nah I live in US thank you for the offer tho
@@smithgeorge6858 go to the contact form on my website and send me your details. I'll ship a sample out via mega slow mega cheap snail mail. It will probably take 3 weeks or so
I'm a "hobbyist leather crafter" wanky name I know, so I always have shit ton of different veg tan hanging around. I've experimented in every which way with the grain side of leather and no compound. Even "high silicate leather" literally nothing happens. Yet I see people selling strops for around £100 which are grain side and advertised as no compound needed. Go figure.
Yeah it's mental, the natural silicates are so low it's pointless. Got to load it with an abrasive even if it's a cheap chromium oxide bar 👍
@@stroppystuff641 yeah definitely, I learnt this pretty quick. I still use the grain side, I've actually been sanding the smooth side to around 1500grit for the higher grit compounds. Works a treat. Still use the rough side more aggressive burr removal and higher grits though. Sorry for commenting loads 😂, nice to engage!
I use the rough side with the green Veritas compound which the manufacturer rates as half a micron. Seems as fine as any diamond spray and is a damn sight cheaper. I expect the bar I have to last a lifetime.
That cut on the rizla was awesome though. I'm sure my knives are never *that* sharp.
@@twatmunro yeah I used to use the oxide waxy blocks, for quite a while actually. I just don't like how it loads into the leather, for the price it does a fine job in my opinion.
I make my own Diamond compound so it's much cheaper than buying and it gives me the ability to control concentration. I don't think I'll use anything but diamond compounds now to be honest. It's just better!