Stroping

Does anyone here do it? I've been doing it with an old piece of rawhide, & it seems to work well. I've gotten my knives to almost hair shaving sharpness. I've been stroping "dry", would i get a better result if i used an abrasive on the leather first? I've been using the rough side of leather, is that the "right" side? I'm thinking of using my rawhide to make something like this. Please let me know if i've been doing it right...Thanx in advance

no. I haven't seen anyone sharpen a blade using raw leather hide. Barbers don't use this method to sharpen knifes anymore due to infection risk.

I have always stroped a knife after sharpening it, to knock off that little bitty wire edge that always appears. I have used an old razor strop, a worn out belt, a piece of scrap leather, even the side of my boot top. Nothing fancy, and it doesn't take more than a few passes in each direction to do the trick...

Rawhide isn't ideal for stropping. Something like suede or even just an old leather belt would work better. You should always strop on the rough (fleshy) side. While not absolutely necessary, a very fine polishing compound will do the job much better and faster.

Depending on the use, I strop some of my knives. Stropping leather is usually impregnated with some sort of abrasive compound. I don't think flitz is going to be ideal for most stropping needs, you would want an abrasive a little more aggressive than that. Jeweler's rouge is the finest stropping abrasive I would ever use, you can get a mirror polish on your blade edge with it. The leather tacked to a board is a good approach, and will work better on angled edges. A piece of stropping leather pinned on one end to a secure object and suspended (like what the old time barbers used) polishs a convex edge. In fact you can make a convex edge this way.

Ideally, I like to start with an emery compound when I am working a new blade or reworking a badly damaged one that I've stropped previously. It will take off more meat on the edge and let me reshape the edge quicker. If I am going to use the knife for field work, like a big fixed blade or a utility knife, then I will stop with the emery compound and leave the edge micro-jagged. Such an edge seems to work better on cutting fibrous materials like paper, rope, carboard, tree limbs, tape and such. If I want a shaving edge, then I will work down to finer grades, ending with jeweler's rouge if a want a push-cutting edge. My leather cutting knives are thus sharpened, as are my smaller pocket knives, and my butchering and carving knives are sharpened like this as well.

Look at it this way, some emery compounds are as gritty as 300 grit sandpaper. Jeweler's rouge is about like 4000 grit sandpaper. Tool leather (the kind that you make fancy stamped and carved wallets and belts out of) makes probably the best stropping leather. I like working the rouge into the hair side of the leather and replenishing it often during the sharpening/polishing process. The hair side, or finished side, is as uniform a surface as you could hope for, and seems to give the most consistent results.

Properly worked, you can make an edge "Scary" sharp by stropping. This is where the weight of the blade held stationary on your fingernail is enough to leave a cut mark when removed.

I'm with oldbaldguy after I have the edge I want on a knife I dress it with a leather strop. I use a piece of leather not raw hide and use the smoothest side. the idea is to knock off any burrs from your edge. Some people think your sharpen your blade with a stop but your just finishing it they get away with just using a stop on razors because of how sharp they are kept.

I never heard of the term "stroping". Is that a modern word?

In origin the word strop is simply an alternative form of strap, but it is now mainly used in the sense of a flexible rectangular piece of leather or canvas used for sharpening a razor, also known as a razor strop.It may be in the form of a hanging belt or a hand-held paddle. In both cases, as the names suggest, it makes a dreaded implement for punitive use (e.g. spanking), especially if made of leather, like a tawse; antique razor strops are generally heavier. So just to clarify,do I use the rough or smooth side of my leather?

I strop on both sides of the leather. On a board, one side has the rough side out and the other has the smooth side out. Both are coated with green rouge. Another board has leather set up the same way and both sides are coated with white rouge. I rarely use both sides of either strop. I find myself stopping with the green rough side more often than not.

When stropping you should use only the weight of the blade during your strokes. Any more pressure than that and you risk losing the edge you acheived on your stones. There are some good links with instructions on stropping but I'm not where I can get to them now.

Thank you Stretch for clarifying things for me & everyone else for your input and tips.

I don't know, I'm not an expert but the strop on the picture is so short, like 6 inch and mounted on a hard surface. I've seen both Kochansky and Ray Mears using their everyday leather belt either tied to a branch or hold by a foot and they hold the other end with one hand while the other will do the rubbing action. They take advantage of the entire lenght of the belt by rubbing the blade, dragging it lightly back and forth to the point that it may come hot from the friction.

Either on the inside or the ouside of the belt, I guess it doesn't really matter.

It's supposed to remove the blurr and reconfigurate the edge to a convex shape, like a microscopic gothic window from a cross section point of view.

Ray Mears even finishes with a few strokes on the edge of a vehicle window if it's available to give the edge a little more bite as he says...

BTW check out this instructional youtube video for stropping straight razors but it's probably pretty much the same principle for a bush knife.

Frankie