Lifespan of strops

[technium]

Good thread. Ive just purchased some of those diamond plates from ITS thats mentioned in another thread and aswell as those ive purchased a thick piece of leather to use as a strop for the final stage but wondered what this 'green' compound is that you use so I can buy some of that ready. I plan on making a holder like Paul Sellers uses for the 3 plates and leather.

Colin

 

[bugbear]

but wondered what this 'green' compound is that you use so I can buy some of that ready.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.a ... at=1,43072

http://woodworkersworkshop.co.uk/Verita ... pound-650z

BugBear

 

[memzey]

Quick question on strops while we're on the subject: do most people stick the leather down with furry or smooth side up?

 

[John15]

Smooth side up as far as I know

John

 

[ED65]

Quick question on strops while we're on the subject: do most people stick the leather down with furry or smooth side up?

It varies with the person and the leather as well as whether it's going to be used bare or with compound.

If you're using a strop bare, or with very little compound (or a particularly fine one like some of the metal polishes or diamond pastes), you should probably go smooth side up.

 

[D_W]

Smooth side up so that you can easily see dirt and easily card scrape filth and contaminants off of the strop. The smooth side also works better for bare leather stropping with light pressure.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

What has not been raised in this thread is whether leather is the best medium to use for bench chisels and plane blades. Leather certainly works - I have had leather strops for years - but now use a piece of planed hardwood scrap with green compound.

I am not sure if one actually should call this a "strop", but it is used in place of leather to ensure the wire edge is removed. It s also used to refresh the edge as I work. The advantage of the wooden strop with compound is that it does not run the risk of the edge being dubbed - which can be the case with leather that gives - plus the compound is charged infrequently, which enables the grit to become very fine.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[D_W]

green chrome ox microfine stick on MDF, dursol on MDF or dursol on horse butt (which in some cases is almost as hard as softwoods). Not a fan of any compound on soft leathers. I suppose tiny submicron used sparingly might be OK, but that type of strop just puts us along the profile of wear.

 

[No skills]

Now my block of green compound has arrived I nearly made a leather strop yesterday... but I decided against it and I'm going to track down a piece of mdf to use.
Two factors involved for me - the worry of ruining an edge and the ease of applying the compound to strop - the bars a lot 'stiffer' than I expected (polishing mop use I spose) I think I can get a more even application on the mdf than leather.

 

[D_W]

Now my block of green compound has arrived I nearly made a leather strop yesterday... but I decided against it and I'm going to track down a piece of mdf to use.
Two factors involved for me - the worry of ruining an edge and the ease of applying the compound to strop - the bars a lot 'stiffer' than I expected (polishing mop use I spose) I think I can get a more even application on the mdf than leather.

Use a drop or two of light oil on a spot on that strop and see how you like the feel. It makes the action of the compound on MDF a lot nicer and keeps lumps of stuff from building up. Just a little of it, though.

 

[ED65]

The stropping compound doesn't need to be evenly distributed on the strop, just a quick squiggle is fine. The bar should be bound with wax, if you're dead set on achieving a uniform green coating though a wad of cloth or kitchen paper dampened with WS or turps should dissolve some wax, making a slurry of the compound which should be easy to spread evenly.

It's nearly impossible to ruin an edge stropping so no need to worry on that score! The amount of metal removed is so tiny the most trivial honing will get you back to where you were before you stropped if you do something wrong.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

....
It's nearly impossible to ruin an edge stropping so no need to worry on that score! The amount of metal removed is so tiny the most trivial honing will get you back to where you were before you stropped if you do something wrong.

I am inclined to disagree as a strop with green compound does remove metal - and if it can remove scratches, it can dub an edge. A leather strop with "give" will create a curved honing surface.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[ED65]

Certainly you can dub an edge when stropping Derek, you have to be careful not to, but I take "ruin" to mean doing some proper damage: something so pronounced that you couldn't rectify it just by honing again.

Obviously how aggressive the honing compound is is a factor, coarser compounds will remove more metal than finer and diamond pastes more than iron oxide. With the fine metal polish I use on my main strop I think I'd need to strop consistently at the wrong angle(s) for a good minute (so well in excess of 70 swipes) to take the edge so far that I'd feel I needed to go back to the stones/plates

 

[D_W]

The easiest way to tell how much you're dubbing an edge is to take a paring chisel and create a marked line for a deep pare.
* sharpen once stropping only lightly on bare leather to remove the wire edge
* sharpen again and do your normal compound stropping routine

Use the result of each of those for the deep paring cut. If you're doing a lot of dubbing, the resistance will be significantly greater on a deep paring cut, which is the most demanding thing I can think of in terms of sharpness and a sensible bevel angle at the same time.

You could count strokes until dull with a smoothing plane, too, but that is...well, dull, and time consuming.

 

[ED65]

Shouldn't that be an if, not a how much?

* sharpen once stropping only lightly on bare leather to remove the wire edge
* sharpen again and do your normal compound stropping routine

If I did that the resistance would be markedly less after option two. That's exactly why I do it 8)

 

[D_W]

The deep cuts are less for me without stropping, though the polish of the edge is undoubtedly more (and sometimes the slight dubbing strengthens it some).

I've come down to preferring bare leather stropping, though the absolute polish of the edge is certainly higher with the very fine compounds.

 

[ED65]

Makes sense for anyone with superior stone skills. Otherwise, as documented by Beach and others, stropped will result in a degradation of the edge and not an improvement.

 

[D_W]

Makes sense for anyone with superior stone skills. Otherwise, as documented by Beach and others, stropped will result in a degradation of the edge and not an improvement.

Beach's problem is that he compared honing with a stone to honing with leather with coarser abrasive than the stone (or really in his case, a honing film).

The conclusion that he came up with that stropping is detrimental is true only if you do exactly what he did.

If I followed his example and used kremer .09 iron oxide, I'd polish the edge further than his finest film, but it really is a complete waste of time (actually, I guess if you're going to put anything gentle on a strop, mixing iron oxide with some oil - to keep it from getting all over the place and staining things - would be decent because you'd work off the wire edge and only remove a little metal).

At any rate, stepping away from the theory, all of it will work fine if used well, and I doubt it will make a lick of difference in practical time spent in the shop.

So despite my preference for clean leather, excellent grinding and finish stones that do fairly little in terms of metal removal (so as to preserve geometry), I'm sure some guy with a diamond hone and a strop full of autosol would do just as well.