Honing

[Jerry Thompson]

Is it worth the effort to use a strop charged with diamond dust to put a high polish to plane irons, chisles and such? If so where does on find it and how can I understand how fine a cut it makes? I only think in grits. I finish my cutting tools with an 8000 grit water stone now.
Thank you

[Mike Henderson]

I think the 8000 stone is sufficient. You have to be practical about sharpening - once you use the tool, it's going to get dull and need sharpening again. The sharpening system you use has to allow you to touch up the tool and get back to work in a reasonable amount of time. Otherwise, you'll spend all your time sharpening and very little time woodworking.

Mike

[Peter Galbert]

Any tool that needs a straight (not rounded edge) such as chisels and plane irons shouldn't be stropped because the deflection of the leather will round the edge. I reserve stropping for tools that need a slight dubbing (rounding) to allow them to enter and more importantly exit a cut. These include carving tools, drawknives and inshaves. I use a flat piece of hard leather nailed to a board. It does make a nice difference in the tools sharpness and easy touch up.

[Ron Brese]

I sort of agree with Peter, I think you can posssibly get a better polish on the back of an iron with the strop, but on the bevel if you're not careful you can do more harm than good, once you've honed up to the 8000 grit stone I can't imagine that a strop is going to make it technically any sharper. Any burr should have been gone by now. If you've done it right up to this point, then it's so sharp that if you look at it too long your eye will start bleeding.

Ron Brese

[Michael Schwartz]

I used to strop but now I just go take a few swipes on a peice of 3M .3U Micro Finishing Film. Green Chronium Oxide Compound is about .5U and others tend to be arround 1200 (american) grit. The first time I sharpened with the .3u film I took it to a strop charged with Rocky Mountain Compound and noticibly dulled the edge.

[Tony Zaffuto]

If you are set on wanting a high polish there are several options: go to your local well-stocked auto parts store and buy some DuPont Perfect-it III polishing compound. Spread it on a piece of MDF scrap and hone away. This will polish without "rounding or dubbing" the edges. The other method does not shine quite as much, but still polishes nicely and that is to still use the MDF board, but use a metal polish such as Flitz, which is available at your local biker store.

I've used both methods and prefer the first when I want a mirror-like polish. My methods today differ however, medium India stone, translucent Arkansas and then green compound charged horse leather strop. Maybe it doesn't shine like some of my former methods, but it cuts as well and is much quicker.

[Terry Beadle]

Tormek has a polishing paste in a tube that they use on the leather strop. It cost about $7 and if you just use it for stropping it will last several years. I use it on a piece of no nap leather that's been conditioned over a period of time to a hard surface. I have not experienced the rounding over when using it but I would tend to agree if one were not careful it would round the tip.

The other common strop is a piece of flattened rock maple with some rottenstone mixed with water pasted on it. You have a flat surface, no round over possibilities, and the cost is minimal. I use just a couple drops of glue in the water when mixing the rottenstone up. I do find the rottenstone hone to be a quite a bit courser than the Tormek paste. It's really good for morticing chisel situations when you are going through tough stock and need a constant refresh .

[Ron Brese]

If one is using the Tormek for a total sharpening system then the strop is an important part of the process. The reason being that even after you regrade the stone with the finer side of the grading stone I don't think it would be as fine as an 8000 grit stone or 1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper on glass,therefore you would need to strop in order to remove the burr.

Ron Brese

[Derek Cohen]

I have experimented with a number of different strops, including motorised. These include round and flat leather wheels, felt wheels, MDF and leather glued to a flat surface. My current favourite is a horse butt leather strop from Joel at Tools for Working Wood. This is a very hard and dense strip of leather than has minimal give and, therefore, does not create any noticeable dubbing. It is used with a little Veritas green rouge (.5 microns) rubbed on top. I can obtain a razor edge from this after a 1200 diamond stone, and this combination makes it really easy to maintain a sharp edge.

Regards from Perth

Derek