Based on a recent post, I thought I would add this post from another thread here - to help update this one:


I don't know if you will be heading down the path that includes stropping or not. There really is no "ONE" way. Many of the different methods can be sufficient or effective.

But, again, I personally LOVE full convex or even partial convex on flat grind. And, I personally really find stropping the best way to get a hair popping edge.

It takes a little practice and know-how. But, so do most techniques.

Research is good.

I recently built myself a new strop bat (with some leather scraps help from a fellow forum buddy here - Thanks Brian).


My strap bat is pretty big at about 22.5" long and with the strop surface area about 13" x 3.1875".

Honestly, the handle doesn't realy have much value. I could have left it off. But, I like the size of the surface area. There are a lot of strops out there with a small width of 1.5" - 2.0". They work, but I like the larger area for larger knives.

I just glued and clamped together some scrap pieces of Kempas hardwood flooring leftover from re-flooring part of my house. I used some brad nails and screws in some hidden places as I tend to over-build my projects. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

The slats are solid hardwood and were nice and flat. (* This Kempas is some VERY HARD / TOUGH heavy duty wood! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> )







It doesn't need to have different levels and bevels and such, but.... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> :




With compound (needs some heat and smoothing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />):



I picked up my compounds from DLT Trading Co


The Black does about 90% of the work with the green just doing the final touch up to the edge.

In most cases, the key is to not push down on the knife and just let the weight of the knife be enough - unless the blade is very light.
If you push down too hard, you cause the abrasive to rise back behind the sharp edge and dull the edge instead of sharpen. It takes patience and time.


There are some pretty good videos on YouTube about stropping.

I still love this video from J. Neilson. J. Neilson uses a power-strop / belt sander method:

Quick & easy knife sharpening - J. Neilson - Notice very little flex in the belts when sharpening.

I currently use my belt sander for just shaping and reprofiling. But, with the 220 grit, I get a bunch of the shaping of the edge done. I still want to upgrade to some better/finer grits and some leather strop belts some day. But, I am holding off for a better quality belt sander still. (some day <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />)


Since Bark River makes all of their knives with a convex edge, there are a lot of good threads/posts on the Bark River forum (at Knifeforums.com) about stropping.




I like to keep my compound flat on my strop, but I don't like to use my knife to flatten the compound as it will abrade any given part of the knife intentionally or not.

So, I keep a cheap 3" - 4" putty (spackling) blade near my strop to help keep my strop compound level and flat.
Putty knives can be had for $3 - $4 at any hardwear store.

But, any cheap piece of "FLAT" / square edged metal will work.

I also have some metal rulers from Wal-Mart that are about 1.25" wide and good thickness and nice edges for about a $1.00. They could be cut in half or thirds and work VERY well!

Spines of various saw blades should work well such as Reciprocating or Jigsaw blades, old scrap hack-saw blades, etc.

Just any scrap piece of metal that has a pretty good flat square edge that can scrape.

I like to hold the metal blade with both hands on either side of the strop and draw (pull) the blade across the strop at just slightly forward of 90 degrees like you would draw a burnishing or scraping blade across flat wood.

I keep my strop on a pan or lid to catch the crumbs when I do this.

I don't like to mess up my blades or spines of my knives leveling my strop.

.