I also use an eraser, particularly to clean metal off of the rough side of the strop as it accumulates, instead of waiting until it has built up so much residue you can't make out the green paste color. However, I've discovered that Staedtler Mars Plastic erasers (available in stationary or crafts stores & often in stationary sections in pharmacies or supermarkets) works MUCH better & quicker. As the metal & compound collect on the eraser, clean it with the grit side of a common dishwashing sponge under running water & you can bring the eraser back to totally clean in a minute. I use the same type of metal straight-edge to remove heavily applied compound & finish also with a wire brush or stiff boar's hair brush to restore the fuzzy texture before applying 1-2 micron or 5-7 micron green wax on different strops. I use a heat gun on the leather & the end of the wax briefly & the wax goes on slicker than an egg passes through a loose goose. For the hide side, I use the blade from a box cutter knife - never scrape with the sharp edge into the leather, but scrape away. I will also use a touch of olive oil or mineral oil & shop towels if not serious enough to bring out the blade. I follow with 1000 grit & 2000 grit sandpaper if needed to make the hide look like new. I then use Dia-Paste 0.5 micron on the hide side for stropping my special knives to a maximum polish. I like the aluminum or chromium oxide low-micron paste on the rough, but use only diamond paste or spray on the hide. BTW, a bit of the heat gun while you are removing thick compound is also a help. I also strop all the time, so I rarely have to go through a full sharpening. Usually a 1000 grit diamond or Shapton ceramic is all I need to touch up the blade every month or two if I'm using it frequently. I have 300 & 600 grit diamonds for reprofiling or fixing chips.
I use mink oil or some other leather moisturizer so the leather doesn't dry out. So while you think it makes a mess, all your doing is drying out the leather (avoid oils that will oxidize and get rank). If that's the case, just use a block of basswood. It works as good or better.
A good leather shouldn't dry out when used with bar compounds (tallow based compounds are the best IMO), the leather will get loaded after time and give it a dry feeling however after a good cleaning the leather should feel soft again. By adding oil(s) or conditioners you're matting down the surface or the leather fibers which IMO kinda defeats the purpose of using the suede / flesh side of the leather and IMO doesn't give as good of results. The leather on this strop is several years old and after cleaned still feels nearly as soft as new leather. I use balsa and basswood a lot, more so for CBN and diamond. Keep in mind that wood and other harder surfaces with little to no give change the characteristics of the abrasive you're using.
Thanks for the tips...I have read some that say they have never, ever cleaned their strop and it still works great...LOL. With that kind of compound, how often do you reload it?? One more ?, do you treat the smooth side the same and use the same compound? Thanks...
Anytime man. I have seen the same and you need to clean them every so often, I let this one get a tad to dirty and should have cleaned it sooner. The white compound is made by Formax, they supply most larger sellers like Enkay. Normally on the smooth side I use Cr2o3 chrome oxide in 0.3m, it's a very tightly graded powder that I mix myself into bar form.
FWIW, I use an hacksaw blade. Teeth side to get bulk off then straight edge to level and scrape. Alcohol sprayed on melts the old compound to remove down to bare leather. ATB.
LOL, I thought for sure you were gonna put a BESS 10 edge on that metal ruler off that square LOL. I prolly need to do something about some of my black looking strops. A bunch o Bark River white That’s literally tuned my strop black. Guess that’s a candidate? Thx buddy! K
The suede or fuzzy side will have a little more give to it and generally used with bar type compounds. Normally the hair or smooth side of leather is used with sprays pastes emulsions etc or used bare. You can use the smooth side with bar type compounds however I recommend roughing up the surface with some sandpaper first.
From your experience or opinion between stropping with traditional chromium oxide, aluminium oxide and diamond spray/paste which one work best for you ?
It really just depends on what I'm sharpening. Something like a straight razor would probably finish with a chrome oxide since it's going to be the softest of the abrasives you mentioned. Knives made from simple steels I would probably use aluminum oxide normally in bar form and anything over 4% vanadium I normally use CBN or diamond.
why don't you use the sole leather strop anymore (which you gave away to Ohioapexing)? i clean off the gunk with rubbing alcohol, not oil. but anyway my most used strops are paint stirring staffs, they're great for removing microburr, they turn black right away because they're so effective at abrading metal.
Hey leech. I use soling leather quite often just depends on what I'm sharpening and what abrasive I'm using. I made that for Ohioapexing and he gave it away as a gift to a fellow sharpener. I use rubbing alcohol in very small amounts to clean leather and works fine, if you saturate leather with it then that becomes a problem. I agree, paint sticks are handy and cheap disposable strops.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY yeah saturating is never good. rubbing alcohol is better than oil because oil gets accumulated, doesn't evaporate out of the leather. alcohol evaporates, so it's pretty harmless in comparison. Nice video as always!!
Hey if that works for you then stick with it. I've been sharpening knives and using strops for many years and have tried about everything under the sun when it comes to leather and strops, personally I have found that I get better results and the strops last longer if I don't add any oils, creams etc. and it's just gives better results overall. EV olive oil can be added to leather safely and people that do leather work have been using it for a long long time, the U.S. cavalry actually used to use it to treat leather however it was mixed with another ingredient to help repel water. As long as the leather isn't dried out from being worked on (e.g. wetting and casing the leather) or from adding something like alcohol I wouldn't recommend adding any kind of oils or creams but that's just me.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY Well in fact if you want to work, carve and shape the leather, you are totally right : I would avoid olive oil, especially because it damages the colours on a veg tan leather. Sadly, if you use a blade ( even with caution ) on the suede side you will damage the grain, which is usually not the objective. The olive oil method i suggested will preserve it and will give you a mirror-like sharpenning with better results :) On the flesh-side however, your method seems perfect to me.
Хобби
Man that pink eraser tip is awesome. Worked amazingly! Thanks!
Glad it helped, thanks for watching!
I'm a rookie when it comes to sharpening, this is an excellent tutorial of how to clean a strop. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Hey you bet and glad it helped, thanks for watching!
I also use an eraser, particularly to clean metal off of the rough side of the strop as it accumulates, instead of waiting until it has built up so much residue you can't make out the green paste color. However, I've discovered that Staedtler Mars Plastic erasers (available in stationary or crafts stores & often in stationary sections in pharmacies or supermarkets) works MUCH better & quicker. As the metal & compound collect on the eraser, clean it with the grit side of a common dishwashing sponge under running water & you can bring the eraser back to totally clean in a minute. I use the same type of metal straight-edge to remove heavily applied compound & finish also with a wire brush or stiff boar's hair brush to restore the fuzzy texture before applying 1-2 micron or 5-7 micron green wax on different strops. I use a heat gun on the leather & the end of the wax briefly & the wax goes on slicker than an egg passes through a loose goose. For the hide side, I use the blade from a box cutter knife - never scrape with the sharp edge into the leather, but scrape away. I will also use a touch of olive oil or mineral oil & shop towels if not serious enough to bring out the blade. I follow with 1000 grit & 2000 grit sandpaper if needed to make the hide look like new. I then use Dia-Paste 0.5 micron on the hide side for stropping my special knives to a maximum polish. I like the aluminum or chromium oxide low-micron paste on the rough, but use only diamond paste or spray on the hide. BTW, a bit of the heat gun while you are removing thick compound is also a help. I also strop all the time, so I rarely have to go through a full sharpening. Usually a 1000 grit diamond or Shapton ceramic is all I need to touch up the blade every month or two if I'm using it frequently. I have 300 & 600 grit diamonds for reprofiling or fixing chips.
I use mink oil or some other leather moisturizer so the leather doesn't dry out. So while you think it makes a mess, all your doing is drying out the leather (avoid oils that will oxidize and get rank). If that's the case, just use a block of basswood. It works as good or better.
A good leather shouldn't dry out when used with bar compounds (tallow based compounds are the best IMO), the leather will get loaded after time and give it a dry feeling however after a good cleaning the leather should feel soft again. By adding oil(s) or conditioners you're matting down the surface or the leather fibers which IMO kinda defeats the purpose of using the suede / flesh side of the leather and IMO doesn't give as good of results. The leather on this strop is several years old and after cleaned still feels nearly as soft as new leather. I use balsa and basswood a lot, more so for CBN and diamond. Keep in mind that wood and other harder surfaces with little to no give change the characteristics of the abrasive you're using.
Thanks for the tips...I have read some that say they have never, ever cleaned their strop and it still works great...LOL. With that kind of compound, how often do you reload it?? One more ?, do you treat the smooth side the same and use the same compound? Thanks...
Anytime man. I have seen the same and you need to clean them every so often, I let this one get a tad to dirty and should have cleaned it sooner. The white compound is made by Formax, they supply most larger sellers like Enkay. Normally on the smooth side I use Cr2o3 chrome oxide in 0.3m, it's a very tightly graded powder that I mix myself into bar form.
FWIW, I use an hacksaw blade. Teeth side to get bulk off then straight edge to level and scrape. Alcohol sprayed on melts the old compound to remove down to bare leather. ATB.
Nice Job! I will clean my aluminum oxide strop and load it with diamond spray from Stroppy Stuff.
Thank you! 😎👍
Does this same technique work on the smooth side of the leather?
It's depends on how the smooth side is finished. If it's been lightly sanded and you're using a bar type compound it will normally work.
LOL, I thought for sure you were gonna put a BESS 10 edge on that metal ruler off that square LOL. I prolly need to do something about some of my black looking strops. A bunch o Bark River white That’s literally tuned my strop black. Guess that’s a candidate? Thx buddy! K
Haha. Yeah a lot of people think that once their strops get jet black they're broken in and work better. not so much lol.
I only have a one sided strop with a smooth side. Does the suede offer some different benefits?
The suede or fuzzy side will have a little more give to it and generally used with bar type compounds. Normally the hair or smooth side of leather is used with sprays pastes emulsions etc or used bare. You can use the smooth side with bar type compounds however I recommend roughing up the surface with some sandpaper first.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY cool. I ordered a big pound of green compound from enkay I want to say. It's giant, will probably last a couple decades.
From your experience or opinion between stropping with traditional chromium oxide, aluminium oxide and diamond spray/paste which one work best for you ?
It really just depends on what I'm sharpening. Something like a straight razor would probably finish with a chrome oxide since it's going to be the softest of the abrasives you mentioned. Knives made from simple steels I would probably use aluminum oxide normally in bar form and anything over 4% vanadium I normally use CBN or diamond.
Where did you get your aluminum oxide compound?
I get it direct from the manufacture. If you do a search for Enkay that will be the same stuff.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY thank you
I barely ever clean my strops :`D they seem to still function but the results are probably better with cleaning.
A little cleaning now and then never hurts. :-)
Wow strop care is as contentious as knife steel lol.
Mucho opinions thx NWKG for this vid
Thanks for watching! :-)
why don't you use the sole leather strop anymore (which you gave away to Ohioapexing)? i clean off the gunk with rubbing alcohol, not oil. but anyway my most used strops are paint stirring staffs, they're great for removing microburr, they turn black right away because they're so effective at abrading metal.
Wait ... like the one in the Christy vid. ?
@@Charlie-yx5gq yee that one. Christy's got it from Ohioapex, and ohio got it from Northwest.
Hey leech. I use soling leather quite often just depends on what I'm sharpening and what abrasive I'm using. I made that for Ohioapexing and he gave it away as a gift to a fellow sharpener. I use rubbing alcohol in very small amounts to clean leather and works fine, if you saturate leather with it then that becomes a problem. I agree, paint sticks are handy and cheap disposable strops.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY yeah saturating is never good. rubbing alcohol is better than oil because oil gets accumulated, doesn't evaporate out of the leather. alcohol evaporates, so it's pretty harmless in comparison. Nice video as always!!
@@Charlie-yx5gq i.imgur.com/tjz4lFS.jpg
Looks good mate. Important to get the old gunk of
Thanks brother and it sure is.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY yes sir. I am sleeping outside tonight video will come tomorow 😁
@@knifesharpeningnorway Nice!
yes sir cold but Nice 😁
Use a sharp spined knife
Sure that would work well too.
...You'd be surprised how clean you can get a strop by just using olive oil and rubbing and scrubbing it with a paper towel.
Over the years I've tried many things including different oils like olive oil.
I'm afraid you're doing it wrong. Prefere olive oil, rub gently with a tissue or so, let dry over night and you will have a better result !
Hey if that works for you then stick with it. I've been sharpening knives and using strops for many years and have tried about everything under the sun when it comes to leather and strops, personally I have found that I get better results and the strops last longer if I don't add any oils, creams etc. and it's just gives better results overall. EV olive oil can be added to leather safely and people that do leather work have been using it for a long long time, the U.S. cavalry actually used to use it to treat leather however it was mixed with another ingredient to help repel water. As long as the leather isn't dried out from being worked on (e.g. wetting and casing the leather) or from adding something like alcohol I wouldn't recommend adding any kind of oils or creams but that's just me.
@@NORTHWESTKNIFEGUY Well in fact if you want to work, carve and shape the leather, you are totally right : I would avoid olive oil, especially because it damages the colours on a veg tan leather. Sadly, if you use a blade ( even with caution ) on the suede side you will damage the grain, which is usually not the objective. The olive oil method i suggested will preserve it and will give you a mirror-like sharpenning with better results :) On the flesh-side however, your method seems perfect to me.