To strop or not to strop?...

[Mike Wingate]

I have always stropped or used the palm of my hand. Ihave used jewelers rouge, I like the Flexcut gold stick on oiled leather, I bought a tub of Chromium Oxide from Ebay to use, but have not got round to using yet.

 

[Mike Wingate]

I have always stropped or used the palm of my hand. I have used jewelers rouge, I like the Flexcut gold stick on oiled leather, I bought a tub of Chromium Oxide from Ebay to use, but have not got round to using yet.

 

[Racers]

Hi, Doug

I was hoping for a blend of unobtainium and higgs bosons for about 50p :wink:

I thought hand stroping only broke the wire edge/burr off rather than poilshing the edge.

Pete

 

[Fromey]

Ive been using a piece of MDF lubricated with 3-in-1 oil and some Tormek honing paste (don't know what's in it).

I'd be interested in knowing what wood variety would be recommended as better than MDF (do you think cherry would do?).

Recently I've been experimenting with polishing using a 3000/8000 Japanese water stone and testing sharpness by passing the blade through paper. My unscientific impression was that stropping on the MDF was in fact dulling the blade compared to just off the 8000 stone. Thus, I conclude I should strop only as a periodic refreshing of the blade and to save the mess and hassle of waterstones. However, I wonder if wood instead of MDF would be better.

 

[woodbloke]

Recently I've been experimenting with polishing using a 3000/8000 Japanese water stone and testing sharpness by passing the blade through paper. My unscientific impression was that stropping on the MDF was in fact dulling the blade compared to just off the 8000 stone. Thus, I conclude I should strop only as a periodic refreshing of the blade and to save the mess and hassle of waterstones. However, I wonder if wood instead of MDF would be better.

I think you'll find that the MDF will indeed dull the blade, possibly as Paul C says, because it's full of other 'stuff'. Try the same sort of technique on a piece of dead flat timber (a hardwood like cherry or walnut should be fine) and then see if there's a difference. I've tried the Tormek paste as well but it seems a little course to me...I don't know what's in it either - Rob

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Try making a cast iron plate and then use diamond paste ...

I used old planes ...

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTe ... paste.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[No skills]

I find this very interesting and consider this a fair step up from my bumbling efforts at making steel edges sharp, are there any recomended videos on youtube or similar that I can have a look at see if I can get my head round stropping technique for chisels and plane irons??

 

[Paul Chapman]

are there any recomended videos on youtube or similar that I can have a look at see if I can get my head round stropping technique for chisels and plane irons??

Excellent video here by Garrett Hack http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAn ... x?id=28819

Cheers :ho2

Paul

 

[No skills]

Many thanks 8)