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You don't always need a stone

11K views 26 replies 21 participants last post by  C.C. 
#1 ·
Any knife I carry has to be just about razor sharp. If not all I can think about during the day is getting home and touching up the edge. Most of my knives I bought new have never or rarely touch a stone.
I put together an easy to use strop for putting a keen edge back on my knives.
I grabbed a piece of vegetable tanned leather about 4 in by 6 in and glued it to a piece of 1x6 the same size.
The I got a stick of jewelers rouge, Tandy leather sells them.
I took a utility blade and scraped a bunch of powder off the stick if rouge onto my leather. I rubbed as much as I could into the entire surface of the leather.
To find the correct angle to strop at you just put the blade on the strop and tilt the blade just past the point where it wants to cut into the leather if you push toward the cutting edge. Then I strop the blade with the cutting edge trailing. Try to do an even amount of strokes on each side.

I have gotten just about every knife I own, with decent steel shaving sharp in no time.

If anyone wants pics of the strop or how to use it, let me know!
 
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#12 ·
If you can't find leather in a suitable size a good alternative that is easy to obtain is denim from an old pair of jeans. It works just as good as leather and it's very simple to make. Just use some contact adhesive to glue a piece of denim to a block of wood and your done. Once the glue dries you can apply the compound and start stropping. This was one of the first denim strops I made so it wasn't very pretty but it worked just fine when loaded with 1 micron diamond paste.

 
#9 ·
You can also get jewelers rouge at home depot in the tool section. I also use a piece of saddle leather, but I just crayon on the red rouge. In a pinch you can use a leather belt that you no longer want to wear. Also...I keep a piece of 600 grit emery paper in my knife box for incidental knicks, etc. works quickly, so you have to be slow and easy.
 
#10 ·
help with terminology and methods of sharpening

Could some of you recommend a good book on sharpening knives that would show different methods, explain the terminology, proper techniques, etc, etc?! I have always been able to get an adequate edge on my pocket knives but never consistently, and not always a razor sharp edge. I have always used a bench stone that went from coarse to fine and honing oil! After reading many threads on this site, it is obvious that I am a total rookie! I have already ordered the standard Work Sharp device for kitchen knives etc! I want to learn all about the strops, steels, etc! Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Tom
 
#11 ·
You know, I never thought of buying a book to learn how to sharpen knives. I'm sure there are lots of videos on YouTube that you could watch that would demonstrate the different sharpening techniques. Using a hone, a steel, or a strop, only takes a little bit of training, and a lot of practice.

Believe it or not, the Boy Scouts of America teach basic sharpening when you're a Cub Scout, I learned a lot with my son in that program on how to start sharpening a knife. After that it was just patients and obsession that led me to be able to sharpen my knives to a razor edge
 
#14 ·
my favorite way to sharpen is a 1"x 30" belt sander with al oxide belt followed by a leather belt or felt belt with stropping compound.

once you get it sharp if your careful with your knife as to not abuse it. you can just power strop it back to razor sharpness in about a minute.

whole set up should be under 70$
 
#15 ·
As some of the high technology steels used in modern knives are harder than the hinges of hell, I sharpen with an inexpensive set of fine, medium and coarse diamond dust embedded hones. For an unknown metallurgy knife steel I start with the fine hone and if that does not seem to be working effectively at sharpening I go to the medium or even possibly the coarse hone. I use about a 15 degree angle between the knife edge and the hone and use a single slicing stroke cutting in toward me and a matching angle single slicing stroke cutting out away from me. Repeat as necessary until you get the precise razor edge that you want. Oftentimes I use the fine diamond hone to finish the sharpening process out with a bit of a final polish on the newly set edge.
 
#17 ·
I also use a 1" belt. I have a kalamazoo (sp) that has a 1720rpm baldor motor. I like using the belt above the platen so that it grinds a convex angle. Supposedly a little bit stronger edge that you can still get very sharp. I have belts from 80 grit to 2500 and then top of with a leather belt. Very quick and easy to sharpen with this method
 
#22 ·
I have a strop that I bought from Tandy for my head knife. I also got the rouge from them. I've gotten to the point that I test my knives on 10 ounce leather and they have to cut on the first try. Amazing, even my small pocket knives are razor sharp and when they get dull it only takes about 20 strokes to get them back.
 
#24 ·
A friend lent me his Lansky setup. I was offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and we were down on weather, so we had 12 hours a day for almost a week... I got real good at holding, fliping and extra meticulous at my stroke and pressure. I kid you not, the blade edge looked like mirror when I was done and it was scary sharp!
I could hold out a 5/8" piece of poly rope limp and slice it like a scalpel on baby skin. Reminded me of that scene in Kevin Costner "Body Guard'' where that piece of silk was separated by floating in down across his Japanese Katana
 
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