Stropping compound?
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Sorry for the late reply but thank you all for the helpful advice.
I have since made a stropping block with leather mounted on a hardwood block. The rough or back of the leather one side, the smooth outer side on the other.
I have now, both a block of Smurf poo, and a tube of Autosol, and I’ve tried stropping with both.
Tbh I am struggling with achieving that paper slicing sharpness. I did manage it on one occasion but following some hefty batoning with my Mora, have not been able to get it quite that sharp since.
I’m not far away. The knife is almost at that level of sharpening, but it seems, as with most things bushcraft I’m beginning to find, it is most definitely a skill to be learned.
I’m using a King sharpening stone. I reckon probably over fifty passes on each side, and then trying to strop the blade to the final sharpness.
Any pointers gratefully received.
I have since made a stropping block with leather mounted on a hardwood block. The rough or back of the leather one side, the smooth outer side on the other.
I have now, both a block of Smurf poo, and a tube of Autosol, and I’ve tried stropping with both.
Tbh I am struggling with achieving that paper slicing sharpness. I did manage it on one occasion but following some hefty batoning with my Mora, have not been able to get it quite that sharp since.
I’m not far away. The knife is almost at that level of sharpening, but it seems, as with most things bushcraft I’m beginning to find, it is most definitely a skill to be learned.
I’m using a King sharpening stone. I reckon probably over fifty passes on each side, and then trying to strop the blade to the final sharpness.
Any pointers gratefully received.
Yep I use autosol on both sides of the leather, to strop my knives. The bonus with it is it dries out and you can easily scrape excess off the strop and reapply. Gives a great mirror finish and works well.
I used to use green stripping compound and some fancy BS but autosol is great, it’s also good on your finger tip to polish out stains from tree sap etc
Also re: stropping and lack of sharpness, I don’t use much excess pressure at all to strop or you end up with a rounded edge. I do no use a solid strop though, I use a belt type strop
What king stone are you using? I use a combo 1000/6000 and can get shaving sharp
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Thank you.
It is 3mm I think. I actually thought it might have been a bit too thin, as I nicked the smooth side a couple of times while stropping.
Thanks. One article I read said to let the Autosol dry on the leather before stropping?
My knife is shaving sharp. I.e I can shave the hair on my arm with it. It’s just the paper slicing thing it struggles with. It’s something I’ve seen people do on YouTube. I can almost slice the paper, and did get it sharp enough once, but haven’t been able to repeat it yet. Of course I can’t really practice too much or I will run out of blade!
I should add that I don’t actually need the knife that sharp really for usage. I’d just like to learn the skill.
I have had a nice strop with sub 1mm suede. Harder strops mean you can use more pressure. Pressure helps remove metal. Many here knows of Longstrider’s sharpening reputation, and he swears by plenty of pressure.
Tip for sharpening. Get a 400 grit stone…or diamond plate. Gets you to sharp faster, when used before the 1000 and 6000. I too have this grit water stones, but will use 400 or 600 to get a burr, then remove with 1000, refine with finer stones, or just strop.
Tip for sharpening. Get a 400 grit stone…or diamond plate. Gets you to sharp faster, when used before the 1000 and 6000. I too have this grit water stones, but will use 400 or 600 to get a burr, then remove with 1000, refine with finer stones, or just strop.
If the blade will shave, it should cut paper…unless there are dinks between the shaving sharp zones. Maybe you are holding the paper and slicing at the wrong angle. Helps to have tension on the paper, so the slice is pushing the paper away from the hand holding it.
Another test…news paper, use the belly of the knife to remove a letter from one side of a page without cutting through to the other side.
Another test…news paper, use the belly of the knife to remove a letter from one side of a page without cutting through to the other side.
I can slice the paper if I tweak the tension as you say, but I’ve only once had it to the point where it would just instantly slice numbers of slivers off the piece of paper.
It’s of no real importance other than to learn the skill.
I’ve been using it to carve a few hearth boards for bow drilling today, so I will have another go and see if I can improve it tomorrow.
Should I let the Autosol dry before stropping, or while it is wet?
If its a new strop, use it wet, as the compound with get into the leather better that way.. The best strops are older ones, that have been impregnated over time. Never heard of letting it dry before, but you should occasionally lightly oil it, to stop the leather drying out. Use your own judgement, try it both ways, but if you let a compound like Autosol fully dry, it just loses its bond with the fibres when you strop on it. It's designed to be used straight from the tube/tin. Doesn't matter so much with bars of compound as they are in wax
Thanks. I did the same and it seemed to give a lovely mirror finish. I do remember when using it on my motorbikes back in the day that the idea was to polish with it and then let it dry before scrubbing it off with a buffing cloth.
Just going back to this, 3mm is great for convex edges or general edges on larger knives. The blade bevel is pressed into the leather and nicely smoothed round. But if your sharpening something like a Spyderco, SAK, with thin flat bevels (most folders really) then thinner leather stuck down hard is going to deform less.
These thing work fine. I put a couple of stacks of rare earth magnets in behind the blade mount to keep it still.
I quite like using cardboard stuck down onto a flat piece of wood as a strop. It works particularly well with compounds that are wax based. It doesn’t have much give at all, so it reduces the chances of rounding over an edge. It is handy for odd blade shapes too: v-gouges, incannel gouges, carving tools, leather tools like edgers etc.