Going to give stropping a try-Day two

nettlle

nettlle

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I have a Wicked Edge GO that I have been using for a few years. Leather strops and emulsions for it have always been available and have always wanted to try stropping. Ordered the Wicked Edge leather strops with 2 and 4 micron emulsions today. Looking forward to trying it out.
 
Do a few light passes and check. I’m guessing 10 per side. It’s possible to overdo it. The angle control of the WE should make it less likely, but you could still end up with an edge that tree tops arm hair but slides on rope or paper.
 
From what I have been reading I need to decrease the angle per side by 2 degrees to avoid rounding the already sharpened edge. It's my understanding that stropping adds more to edge life than sharpness. I am a true rookie on stropping.
 
You can strop on various things, with and without compound. I always lower the angle. I often will strop on my palm if I'm using a knife and it needs a minor touchup. But when sharpening, I'll use a leather strop, or a piece of cardboard with green compound on it.

I've found that it's important to not let the knife get too dull, otherwise stropping won't be effective.

But I've also found that stropping too much at once will dull the knife. So, I'll give a knife 10-20 total strokes, but no more. I do a left/right, instead of 10 on left and 10 on right or something. It works better for me.
 
From what I have been reading I need to decrease the angle per side by 2 degrees to avoid rounding the already sharpened edge. It's my understanding that stropping adds more to edge life than sharpness. I am a true rookie on stropping.
Click to expand...
As long as you don't press hard, you will be fine with the same angle you used to sharpen. At least that's how the designer of the Wicked Edge did it at SHOT when I talked to him there.
 
Stropping definitely adds to sharpness. Excessive stropping can decrease edge life. Stropping is in some ways like steeling an edge. It can be used to extend time between full sharpening on stones. Eventually it won’t work and you’ll have to go back to the stone and recut a fresh edge.
 
I find stropping is gilding the lily. Much like using superfine grits to get a mirror polish on the edge. I am only willing to do it if the customer is willing to pay for it.

Kevin
 
You appear to talking about stripping after sharpening instead of stopping between uses to delay having to sharpen.

Both are good practices.
 
Yes I was talking about stropping after sharpening. Never thought about sharpening between uses. I have been doing some reading and watching videos and so far no one has mentioned stropping between sharpenings although it seems like a good idea.

I think if I set up the WE for the strops I would probably be tempted to give the edge a few swipes with the 1000 grit diamond stone before stropping?
 
As a general rule, one can touch up a knife between full sharpenings. I use a coarse, fine, then extra fine water stone on my kitchen knives. I can just use the extra fine stone two or three times before I have to go back to the coarse and start over.

When your knife looses that super sharp edge, you can just give it a few passes in the strop and see if that works. If not, try the next finest stone and keep going back up in coarseness until you find one that works.
 
Strop between uses with leather or cardboard and you won't have to sharpen as often. Same for steeling between uses to avoid having to sharpen as often.
 
The strops came today and I gave them a try. The knife I was sharpening was already sharp so I didn't see a noticeable difference in sharpness after stropping. Maybe sharp enough already. The edge was was nicely polished after stropping. This is with 2 micron and 4 micron emulsions. Got a couple of more knives to try stropping tomorrow.
 
Strops came yesterday and did a little stropping then. No all that impressed yesterday. Stropping the same blade today. Per @JohnKSa I stropped the same angle as the edge was sharpened (17 DPS). Much better! It really doesn't take that much stropping to make a big difference in sharpness.
 
Today I learned how to replace the leather on my new Wicked Edge strops. A blade sharpened with a 1000 grit diamond stone will slice through leather like a hot knife through butter. Back in business now.
 
Last edited:
Yup. Go slowly at first. It's a completely different motion than the sharpening stroke you use with the Wicked Edge. 😁
 
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