Replies

1. 
   Eef | Mar 10, 2009 09:46pm | #1

   zabo,

   don't strop the plane irons. but then i am only but learning their use.  i can attest to the usefullness of stropping  my carving chisels.  been  doing so, with the same strop, for quite some time.  whenever i stop and think about the next move or halt to contemplate my work, i strop a little.  some of the chisels in my satchel were sharpened, once, years ago. stropping is a good thing.

   eef

1. 
   Zabo2 | Mar 10, 2009 11:08pm | #2

   Something I forgot. How do you strop? I use a cloth wheel with polishing compound seems to work ok but maybe a piece of leather would be better.

   Zabo

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Mar 11, 2009 12:03am | #3

   Zabo,

   I use a piece of rock maple for stropping plane irons and chisels free hand.  I like the hard surface and works for me.  Gettin away from jigs but use one ocasionally.

   For carving chisels I use Spyderco (sp?) ceramics that work very well.  Not advertising.

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

1. 
   DonC | Mar 11, 2009 06:53am | #7

   I like the ceramic stones too. My only complaint is, only their small white ulta-fine polishing stone is truely flat. The larger stones in coarser grits would be great for scrapers IF they were flat. The nice feature of ceramic is they never dish out.

   My strop material is the cardboard from the back of a spiral notebook. It's firmer than leather and less likely to round over the cutting edge.

1. 
   flairwoodworks | Mar 11, 2009 06:58am | #9

   Don,Hate to tell you this, but ceramic stones do dish. However, they dish very slowly. I flatten my ceramic stone on my diamond stone and saw the same wear pattern as water stones - the center is dished and the perimeter high.Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com(soon to be http://www.flairwoodworks.com)

    - Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

2. 
   hammer1 | Mar 11, 2009 12:17am | #4

   I use a smooth, flat piece of leather charged with a paste chrome polish, like Simichrome, for the final step in most of my sharpening. I use a honing guide on chisels and plane irons and use that on the leather, laid on a flat surface. This keeps me from lifting and rounding over the edge. The polish brings the edge to a mirror shine in a few strokes. Easier than any strop compound I've used. Depending on what I'm cutting, I can renew the edge two or three times on the strop. If the edge gets dinged, I have to go to the stones. Unless I have to reshape or fix a nick, my sequence is fine diamond, 1000 grit water stone, leather strop. It's quick and very sharp.

   Beat it to fit / Paint it to match

3. 
   Jammersix | Mar 11, 2009 01:17am | #5

   Tormek, old as dirt, before every use.

1. 
   Biscardi | Mar 11, 2009 03:48am | #6

   All,

   After I sharpen on my oilstones I strop on a piece of leather with green compound. I recently (reluctantly)  got talked into a powerstrop for gouges. These are stacked hard leather discs that go on the grinder arbor. It is outstanding for sharpening gouges- especially curved ones. I think it cost $25 at the Woodcraft store. I can send a picture if anyone is interested.

   Frank

4. 
   flairwoodworks | Mar 11, 2009 06:55am | #8

   I never strop my irons. When they get dull, I sharpen them on a 8000x water stone. My carving tools and knives, however, I do strop. I have been using a piece of leather charged with honing compound, but recently make an MDF wheel and attached it to a faceplate on my lathe. Stropping, by the way, always has the cutting edge trailing, never leading.

   Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
   (soon to be www.flairwoodworks.com)

    - Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer

5. 
   derekcohen | Mar 11, 2009 07:58am | #10

   I strop to maintain the edge on my blades.

   There are many ways to skin a cat. I prefer a strop made of hard horse butt leather and a paste made of green rouge:

   http://www.inthewoodshop.com/WoodworkTechniques/Stroppingwithgreenrougeversesdiamondpaste.html

   Regards from Perth

   Derek

1. 
   cbuhler | Mar 11, 2009 09:24am | #11

   I guess I've missed something in the years that I've had woodworking as a hobby. Originally, I used a carburondum (sp) stone and a couple of oil stones to sharpen everything. Then I saw someone use sandpaper and discovered that for final and touch-up honing the 600 grit and 1000 grit paper works pretty good. I use the paper dry so it doesn't last very long, but it gets me back to what I'm doing.If the chisel or plane starts tearing wood, then I wack it on the 1000 grit for 30 seconds or so, and it seems to me to quit smashing up the wood. Now granted I mostly work oak, pine, and other cheap common woods, but that all seems to work for me.What makes me want to know some more about this is I just inherited a Craftsman Wet Sharp machine and a couple of waterstones from my step father. He was a finish carpenter and did some beautiful cabinets. As a hobbyist, I don't know the in's and out's of that type of work but I think the quality of the furniture I've made (and occasionally sold) at least comes close.I've read this forum for quite some time, and I've read comments from a couple of people that say it's ok to just sharpen enough to keep working. But I read a lot about sharpening to these un-believable grits. Does that really do anything for you? This thread seems to have a lot of carvers, so maybe this isn't the place for a wood butcher like me to make the comment as I don't carve at all, I crank out the occasional dovetail or grind down a warped board or two. Smooth and flat are all I really know about, I don't do curves. Maybe that's where stropping or 10,000 grit is important.To me, if it cuts, it works. I would like to learn to use the grinder and stones I have, but I really don't see how they can improve the wood hackery that I do now.

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Mar 11, 2009 01:23pm | #12

   My sharpening habit is kinda like yours, get it back to working order.  I say habit as I found that it can indeed get to be a habit.  Perhaps anal might be another descriptor?

   It has often been said that a good test for sharpness is when the iron can cut pine endgrain easily and cleanly without tearing/crushing the wood fibers; it's  the test I use for sharpness.

   If you're a hobbiest, I would say try the Craftsman Wet Sharp.  Why not?  If you have the time it just show you something.  What ya got to lose, a little time?

   As for stropping, I really haven't noticed any significant difference in sharpness, but it does look nice.  Then I think, why not strop the whole blade?  No, I can kick this habit any time I want to...............

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

1. 
   derekcohen | Mar 11, 2009 02:09pm | #13

   As for stropping, I really haven't noticed any significant difference in sharpness, but it does look nice. 

   Hi Bob

   I think that you are missing the point. There are many reasons to strop. One of them is to take an already sharp edge to a higher level of sharpness. Such as taking a blade off an 8000 waterstone and stropping it. Will that make a significant difference to the degree of "sharpness"? Some argue yes and others say no (such as Brent Beech).

   Can one draw a distinction between stropping and honing? I would say that it depends on what you use as a strop.

   I have a few strops, but mainly use two - one is a plain leather strop and the other is used with honing compound/paste.

   The plain leather is used to remove a wire edge - not on all my blades, but when it is a little stubborn. I don't see this as a "sharpening" strategy, although the edge does improve.

   In my vocabulary, to "sharpen" actually is to "smoothen". When an edge is made smoother, then the edge becomes "sharper". So a strop with a honing paste, whether this is green rouge (such as the crayon sold by Lee Valley) or diamond paste (either oil- or water based), and used on a variety of mediums (leather, wood, metal, plastic ..) is designed to remove metal. It is an abrasive. By doing so, it smooths/sharpens the edge.

   One certainly may use this process to take an edge to a higher level. There are motorised and manual ways to do this. They include hard felt and leather wheels on a grinder (such as the leather wheel on the Tormek) to a leather disk on a belt sander (this is one I developed some years ago), etc. These all work very well for me. However I prefer the manual approach. My preferred strop is hard horse butt leather (from Tools for Working Wood). This is hard, with minimal give, and I glue the pieces to hardwood to ensure flatness.

   Read my article for technique. Here it is again. What I emphasizing is that stropping is a terrific method to maintain an edge. I really do not want to have to regrind or rehone my blades that frequently. A good strop and correct technique with sustain a working edge for a long time. It is not intended to increase the smoothness of the original edge - but it can return a dulled edge to a sharpened state.

   Regards from Perth

   Derek

   Edited 3/11/2009 7:12 am ET by derekcohen

1. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Mar 11, 2009 03:14pm | #14

   Hi derek,

   My point was that, well, do what works for you I guess.

   I have a set of what I call my beater chisels - use them for rough work around the woodshop and as my test bed for new sharpening techniques/ideas that I come across.  I like to try different thangs.

   I'd seen the hard maple board process on the Inet and a friend recommended it to me, so I thought, why not give it a try.  Before that (and still use on occasion) an old barbers strop with several grits of polishing compound truckers use to polish the chrome on their rigs.

   Even tried Dupont #7 rubbing compound, automotive valve grinding compound and yes, some granite dust (flakes) with kerosene; which did work very well although somewhat unpredictable.

   Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

2. 
   flairwoodworks | Mar 11, 2009 05:53pm | #15

   It's really a matter of tolerances. I sharpen my good bench chisels up to 8000x, but only sharpen my utility butt chisels with a 120x white grinding wheel. Don't tell anyone, but it was my utility chisels that I used to chop the mortise in my lignum vitae plane body. It worked fine, but the resulting surface was less than what I want, so I cleaned up with my good bench chisels.Also, there is a sharpness where the blade will cut, and a level of sharpness where the blade will cut easily and cleanly in end grain. I like to keep my tools sharp enough that if used on end grain, they will leave a polished surface better than that left by my 80-tooth crosscut blade.Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com(soon to be http://www.flairwoodworks.com)

    - Success is not the key to happiness.  Happiness is the key to success.  If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer