Sharpening help.

[RF52]

Do you use the "rough" side or the smooth side of the leather to strop?

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I use both, don't really think that it matters because as far as I know, it's small silicon particles in the leather that does the "sharpening", so it should be equal whatever side. But I know that others like to put compound on the suede rough side because it sticks easier and do the raw leather stropping on the flat smooth side.

Thanks I have an old belt I'm going to make into a strop, should be long enough for a couple so I can try both and see

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Btw, don't use that much pressure when stropping, the weight of the knife plus a tiny bit more, maybe 1.5-2X the weight of the knife is lagom!

Good to know

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I don't know if I have to say it, but don't "cut" into the leather do it the other way, away strokes and use the same angle as when sharpening the knife, if you do 20 degrees each side when sharpening and putting the apex on the knife, use the same angle when stropping

I knew about not cutting the leather but good info about the angle, didn't think about that.

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And most of all, even with very little stropping you will usually notice a huge difference!

Great!

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[Gerhard Gerber]

It blows peoples' minds if they see how a strop puts back a paper slicing edge with a few passes......the trick is to not let the edge get away from you.

This is true for all the older simpler steels.......

[Aloha]

I've been looking at my edge bevels thru my mag glass more and more.  I don't like the lines that I see from factory.  I like to strop to the finest smoothest finish I can.  Even under the magnification of my mag glass I can see the "toothy" edge which I just don't like.  I used to round over my apex when I first began stropping.  I wasn't "getting it" till I watched a few videos.  I'm currently working on my Skeletool CX blade.  It has lines on the bevel which I am currently removing by stropping.   Some may not want to or feel they need to do this and thats fine but I enjoy the process more than anything.  Secondly, my high carbon blades benefit much like the highly polished SAK blades do in keeping rusting to a bare minimum if at all.  Lastly, I do enjoy the level of sharpness I am able to achieve.  Its quite rewarding.