Anyone else use this as a strop

[Chris Griggs]

So as much as I love my ceramic stone water stones, when I'm in the midst of working I often prefer to use my arkansas stones, since I can just leave them sitting on the bench. My one issue has been that I hadn't yet found stropping medium I liked. Actually, if I work my surg black correctly a strop is hardly necessary for anything other then blades used for final smoothing, but I always like to get the sharpest edge possible regardless of the task.

I'm haven't wanted a leather of felt strop for various reasons, one of which is I don't like stropping on something soft - ham handed as I am, its just too easy for me to mess up the edge geometry. I've used MDF before too, but haven't really liked it as it goes out of flat pretty quickly in my humid area, and I can't help but worry that it will have some embedded grit in it (although I never actually experienced the latter problem)

Anywho, today I was messing about at my bench when a 12" x 4" piece of marble that I use for lapping caught my eye, and I thought to myself that would be a great base for a strop. I then saw a pack of sandpaper sitting next to it, and got to thinking that the thin cardboard in comes in would make a great ridgid stropping medium if it were glued to the marble.

Anyway, long story short, I gave it whirl, rubbed on some green stuff and honing oil, and low and behold - the best strop I've ever used (not that I've used that many).

212758I messed with it for a while this morning and its hard enough that if you don't overdo the green stuff you can actually work the back of a blade side to side as you would on a stone without the corners digging in (although I am going work the blade back on a flat water stone again just to make sure it's not dubbing the corners). For the bevel you still only want to use a pulling stroke, but the hardness makes it really easy to maintain the existing bevel geometry. My one concern was that the cardboard wouldn't hold up to oiling, which is my preference when applying green stuff, but so far no issues in that area - the thin cardboard seems to hold up very well

So does anyone else use this or similar as a strop? Is it one of those things that is old as the hills, but I've just not heard of? I've seen a lot of suggested stropping mediums, but this is one I can't recall coming across. I'll have to mess with it some more but so far it seems to make a fantastic strop/hone, and I'm pretty psyched about it.

[Jim Matthews]

Premium cardboard can be had from Lee Valley tools or Lie-Nielsen.

The best is aged in shipping, with essential oils from cast iron in direct contact.
The best, however, does not last for long and will require frequent replacement from the supplier.

[Bill White]

I made a leather faced disc that I use on the lathe. Load it with the green compound, and polish the blade. Simple, quick, and effective.
Just my process.
Bill

[Chris Griggs]

Premium cardboard can be had from Lee Valley tools or Lie-Nielsen.

The best is aged in shipping, with essential oils from cast iron in direct contact.
The best, however, does not last for long and will require frequent replacement from the supplier.

Hmmmm, I have been thinking of placing an order with Lee Valley soon, I just need to decide what piece of cast iron I want to come with the cardboard. Also, I hear Bridge City and Glenn Drake have some unique innovations in cardboard - it'll cost you though.

[Tony Zaffuto]

I'll stick to my horsehide leather! Hated it at first, but about six months ago, while trying to clean some green compound off of it, I used a bit of "Marvel Mystery Oil" to see if it would dissolve the compound. What it did was sort of liquify it into the leather, as well as softening the leather a bit. I recharge with a bit of compound, and then rub it in with the oil. A few swipes on whatever blade I'm sharpening and the blade is razor sharp. The strop actually has the look of a very well aged barber's strop.

[Bruce Haugen]

My favorite strops are a chunk of corian and a dead flat piece of rock maple.

[Jim Matthews]

I think that any method achieving good results, quickly, is best.

I try not to use power tools, not only because I hate my electric utility so much.

[Jim Koepke]

If it works, use it!

Thanks for sharing.

jtk

[Dave Cav]

If it works, use it!

Thanks for sharing.

jtk


I cut a couple of pieces of rough leather from a worn out pair of gloves and glued them to the sides of a piece of scrap wood. One side gets green compound, one side is plain. Works fine for touching up chisels.

[Bob Stroupe]

I've been using a piece of cereal box cardboard, works for me too. I haven't glued it to anything I just lay it flat on my bench.
I got the idea from Everett Ellenwood's "Sharpening Simplified" video.
I've also heard tell of people gluing up this sort of cardboard into a stack then cutting a disc out of it to use for power stropping.

[john brenton]

Stropping should be so light that i wouldnt worry to much about the surface. I go a little heavy on the gouges that have hard to get to edges though. Ive used lots of different stuff, mainly when honing a gouge and cant find the thing i used last time. Cardboard is good, the back of a sanding belt is good, soft pine is good, mdf is good especially becuase you can gouge out the profiles on the surface and on the edge. I generally use a balsa strop that i made for straight razor shaving.

[Dan Carroll]

I have a piece of left over granite back splash I picked up cheap, a piece of fairly hard leather left over from a grab bag from a craft supplier years ago, add a bit of jeweller's rouge and Bob's your Uncle. Works great, and I can glue down or not as needed. I recall a thread on a different forum where the final conclusion was that the best strope is made from the leather on the south side of a north bound horse. All the old barbers used it.