Thread: Don't Strop Your Chisel Backs...

Luke, that is why I recommend only stropping on hardwood. I use green compound rubbed on planed hardwood.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I have seen some very knowledgeable people strop on scrap plywood as well with good results.

Hi Chris

I am not keen on ply since the stuff I see is crapola. However, I would use MDF.

Regards from Perth

Derek

I think if it is a non compressible substrate with a fine surface and holds the compound it works, cast iron for instance, has anyone tried it?

Sure, cast iron is the substrate for diamond paste. Do it all the time.

Regards from Perth

Derek

This is getting a bit pedantic and beside the point, but...

There's a bit of info out there that states that it's only a strop when the substrate is compressible. At the end of the day there is a fundamental difference between having the honing compound deform to follow the contour of the blade, vs the blade being flat on the sharpening media. Based on this, using hardwood or cast iron would just be honing.

If the compressible substrate were not the defining trait of a strop, then how would you define a strop? Any sharpening media on which the honing compound is not mechanically bound to the substrate? To me that seems like a reach. In my mind the compression, which results in a decrease in the necessary skill associated with using it, a la every average joe who shaved prior to disposable razors (or morons like me last year...), is the characteristic which makes a strop a strop.

Food for thought...

Cheers,
Luke

Luke, I would say that a strop is either a linen or leather strap that is used to polish a razor's edge. It is generally used without any compound or rouge. As soon as one adds compound, it is no longer stropping but honing. Whether leather or wood or cast iron, when used with compound, it becomes a sharpening tool.

I would also also suggest that polishing (as in the razor strop) involves moving steel, while sharpening involves removing steel.

We use the term strop these days to refer to a leather substrate, when we really are just using another sharpening medium. Leather is not a good sharpening medium for plane or bench chisel blades. A non-flexible substrate is better.

Regards from Perth

Derek

For wood carving edges, I gave up on leather some years ago. It is archaic, period. As said, it rebounds after compression.

I have pieces of stone countertop cutoffs, you all know they have polished surfaces.
On top of that is something like hard box card or office filing cards, held in place with dabs of masking tape.
There's no good reason to be any more sophisticated than that.
Very thorough scribble with CrOx/AlOx honing compound to produce carving sharp finished tool edges.

For Pacific Northwest style crooked carving knives, I must hold the tool steady and move the abrasive.
Office file card wrapped around dowels, taped in place, green scribble and go to it.

Hi all,
I had always thought stropping was to remove the finest of burr from the blade not to polish it I have always used my hand to strop as that is what I was taught in the pattern shop as an apprentice.
Regards Rod.

Originally Posted by Rod Gilbert

Hi all,
I had always thought stropping was to remove the finest of burr from the blade not to polish it I have always used my hand to strop as that is what I was taught in the pattern shop as an apprentice.
Regards Rod.

I never saw a barber sharpen a razor during the day but I saw barbers use the strop many times when there could be no wire edge on the razor. Has the practise been changed and modified from what it once was to what it is today and the term used has remained the same?

Luke this method would not sit well with anyone using a cut throat razor be it flat back or double edge. As has been said I was taught to strop to remove fine bur firstly by dad as a 5yr old and though out trade years and reading on care of sharp edges.

One and the same = polishing means only that the metal surface is so finely scratched that you can't see it with your naked eye so you believe it's smooth. No, it is not.
That process also reduces whatever wire edge you think you may have.

It is not possible to produce a zero edge on steel. Can't be done.
Rather than just read about it, I bought Leonard Lee's book: The Complete Guide to Sharpening. As in 'Lee' of "Lee Valley."
Across pages 32 and 33 are 15 electron microscope pictures of "chisels sharpened on various stones."
Much of what I had been taught to do as essential wasn't really effective. Much of what I read is nonessential.
Really freakin' disappointing for the time it took.

My next decision was to learn to do the absolute minimum (no dogma, no ritual) to obtain carving sharp edges for very soft woods
such as the red and yellow cedars. 600 if visible damage. Then 800, then 1,000 then 1,500 then hone on a hard card strop with CrOx/AlOx.
Very hard steels don't crumple as fast as softer metals but I can still feel that carving edge going away in about 30-4- minutes steady work.
No more than 1/2 dozen passes on the strop and I'm back at work.

Originally Posted by derekcohen

Luke, I would say that a strop is either a linen or leather strap that is used to polish a razor's edge. It is generally used without any compound or rouge. As soon as one adds compound, it is no longer stropping but honing. Whether leather or wood or cast iron, when used with compound, it becomes a sharpening tool.

I agree with this, I think the term has become somewhat bastardised over the years and is not what the majority of woodworkers do, we hone with a compound and that is entirely different to the original intent of the process.

I did the same thing as you did a couple years ago. And yes - it takes forever to sharpen out.

Now - I only strop the bevel - not the back. I use an extra fine diamond stone on the backs.