So I do not have a legit straight razor (yet). Only a shavette with feather blades but rarely use it. I’m a big knife guru and have a professional sharpening system that can take any blade to shave sharp pretty fast. Kalamazoo 1x32 belt sander with progression of many belts and leather strop belts with compounds. I know that you want to lightly touch the bevel on a tight strop at a lesser angle than your bevel otherwise strop goes too slack and rounds out and kills your fine edge. Now my question. When stroping a straight razor manually, how much tension should be held on the strop for best results? Compounded vs bare leather? Or can you achieve finer results with a strop mounted on a flat surface?
Experienced knife sharpener here with a strop question.
- Thread starter Justin1976
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Best description for how tight to hold strop is "taught" not pulling super hard but firm. There will be some deflection in use. That is ok.
Compound vs bare leather? Depends what you need from your edge and where it is at with regards to shave ability. For the most part - bare leather is all that's needed.
Finer results from a strop on a flat surface?, no. If you are using a compound on your leather then a flat surface is better than hanging as a rule, again depending on what you are using and how.
Im a ”science of sharp” fanboy. This site has extensive analysis on the subject.
According to it materials and pressure matters, tension not so much. Why is that? The convex curve radius of the bevel is in scale of micromillimeters, while the curve of your slacking strop is messuared in decimeters.
According to it materials and pressure matters, tension not so much. Why is that? The convex curve radius of the bevel is in scale of micromillimeters, while the curve of your slacking strop is messuared in decimeters.
Also since you are a knife nerd, there is an article on what is really happening when ”steeling” a knife. Its super interesting.
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- #5
By steeling do you mean edge alignment? I’ve never steeled a kitchen knife although I hear it’s useful if your doing a lot of cutting. I usually just take them to the machine and touch them up with a bare belt or belt and green compound when they get dull. Makes short work of it
Stropping a razor uses a different "angle" than a knife. On a knife you hold it at the angle desired (the one you honed it at), on a straight razor you leave the spine flat on the strop as the "angle" is built in, spine to edge.
I used to use a steel on my kitchen knives but now just hit a pasted paddle strop once a week or so to keep them in top shape. Easier to keep them sharp than to let them get really dull and have to bring them back again. Have not used a steel for many years now.
I used to use a steel on my kitchen knives but now just hit a pasted paddle strop once a week or so to keep them in top shape. Easier to keep them sharp than to let them get really dull and have to bring them back again. Have not used a steel for many years now.
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- #7
Same concept here on my kitchen knives. Easier to keep them scary sharp with a little compound and strop
For my kitchen knives, I normally steel to maintain things. When a touch-up is needed, I use a bench strop, one side lined with balsa pasted with the green/red/black Soligen crayon, and the other with straight vegetable-tanned leather, the surfaces being 3" x 12". There the surface remains flat and fixed, with any variability being the blade angle. I follow Dr. Matt's method. 3 back strokes on each side, 2k back strokes, 1 back stroke. Repeat as needed.
For razors, as the spine-edge relationship remains fixed, the variable as introduced to arrive at the sweet spot has to do with the strop's tension. This is a bit intuitive based on experience and depends on the blade's grind as well. Better to start out taut for starters before introducing slackness incrementally, but a slight amount of slackness is always involved from my experience.
One exception with razors would be a small paddle strop lined with felt beneath the leather, where the tension is fixed; there a bit of pressure from the thumb on the shank as directed towards the trailing edge (spine-leading stroke in stropping) during the pass seems to help. Perhaps the same holds true for a fixed paddle strop. Increased pressure would suggest fewer lap counts. More of a European thing, involving a laterally biassed pass.
For razors, as the spine-edge relationship remains fixed, the variable as introduced to arrive at the sweet spot has to do with the strop's tension. This is a bit intuitive based on experience and depends on the blade's grind as well. Better to start out taut for starters before introducing slackness incrementally, but a slight amount of slackness is always involved from my experience.
One exception with razors would be a small paddle strop lined with felt beneath the leather, where the tension is fixed; there a bit of pressure from the thumb on the shank as directed towards the trailing edge (spine-leading stroke in stropping) during the pass seems to help. Perhaps the same holds true for a fixed paddle strop. Increased pressure would suggest fewer lap counts. More of a European thing, involving a laterally biassed pass.
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