Stropping kitchen knives?

[gull]

Does it work? Don't laugh I'm serious! If it helps maintain my kitchen knives I'm more than happy to strop them.

 

[shipr]

i use a sharpening steel

 

[elalan]

I have an old leather strop screwed into the side of a cabinet and I use it when I am done with the steel on my kitchen knives. I don't know much about sharpening, although I seem to get the job done. Why wouldn't you strop?

 

[Jim]

I strop with a couple of bench strops- Felt with cro-ox and leather with diamond. Works great.

There are some threads in the mess hall on this topic.

 

[gull]

i use a sharpening steel

That's what I used to use but I read somewhere that it does more harm to the blade than good :/

 

[ouch]

I think it would be very easy to dull your edge with a hanging strop, but if you're used to maintaining a proper angle freehand on stones, you should be able to strop on a bench strop without problems.

 

[wdwrx]

I strop my kitchen knives... with a $10.00 strop I got before I knew any better. I had to use it for something, so I hung it off the tea-towel rack in the kitchen. I use it every time I hone (yes.. hone) my knives. Lately i can shave arm hair with my kitchen knives and after coming off the honing progression I strop them.


The edge is good for, like..... two tomatoes.

 

[Blue58]

I would suggest getting a good quality steel ( they come in various sizes and grits... course, medium, medium fine, fine... ) A 12 to 14 inch steel is the best size and the medium / medium fine grit is good... keep the steel at about a 45 degree angle in front of you and then with the knife blade at about a 10 degree angle to the steel bring the knife down the steel while pulling down and away from heel to the point along one side of the steel then bring the knife to the top of the opposite side and top of steel and repeat the process... like honing this is 1 lap after about 30 laps ... strop it just like you would a razor.

 

[jag613]

this does work, if you have ever read on japanese kitchen knives, they should be stropped on leather or newspaper or cardboard because they are generally sharpened to such a high degree of sharpness that a honing rod or steel would degrade the edge and or roll it. if it is not a japanese knife you are using then you should definately hone(using hone as the kitchen term or realigning the edge, not the way it is used with regards to actually removing metal when honing a razor) it on a steel

 

[DaveMartell]

Does it work? Don't laugh I'm serious! If it helps maintain my kitchen knives I'm more than happy to strop them.

Hanging (razor) strops don;t work well for knives because a knife doesn't have a built in guide to help keep the strop from curling around the edge and dubbing (or rounding) it over. You could elect to lay the strop on a table and use it like that but a better solution is a hard backed bench hone strop made for this purpose. The razor world uses these as well so they're easy enough to find around and can be handy for use on both types of tools.

What types of knives do you have?

If they're German/Euro/American/Chinese - no - don't bother with stropping. These knives will be too soft to benefit from the refined edge and time it takes to bother. A much better solution is a good ceramic steel used with a light touch.

If the knives are Japanese then - yes - a fine bench strop is worth bothering with.

 

[honed]

I strop my kitchen knifes as well as some tools, like carving knifes & some smalles chisels.

I have two "strops" for this (actually old army-surplus 2" leatherbelts)
One is loaded with 2 micron diamond paste, one with autosol (metal polish, very fine abrasive) Works great.