Well after receiving my Pro Kit and working on my first few knives I have managed to completely destroy the strops. I worked really hard to get the technique right but no matter what on my longer Gyuto knives when I get to the tip it slices the strops. They are trash at this point. My question, is there an alternate route with stones to get a smooth finish without strops? I'm not trying to polish the edge as much as get a clean finish. Also I notice a lot of slack in the arms and it often catches at the end, is that normal? Just trying to figure this system out. I've managed to ruin two edges so far so I'm a bit disappointed with the system.

Hey DFS! See your PM ... in your PM box

Hi Sean

I have had the WEPS for 2 years+ with no updates and I have been getting excellent results on my chef's knives...on all my knives for that matter. I am trying to see how you would destroy a set of strops. I can see the odd knick when I am uncoordinated. but unless you are constantly doing downswept strokes with your leather strops, it shouldn't happen. You must see what stroke is doing the damage...what is it? Why do it? I guess I don't understand, because there is nothing inherent in the system that could destroy your strops except moving the leathers into the edge, which will surely destroy them. The slack in the arms should have minimal effect on the edge and real world sharpness unless they are grossly off and then you would know that clearly. Certainly the slack would have no part in the destruction of your strops.
Please paint a clearer picture of your process with the rig to help us see and pinpoint the problem. Right now I can't see what you are doing from your description. Help me out here.

Leo the easily confused

The old man and I kinda beat up our strops the first day, from all sorts of oddball things. I've seen the longer blades take knicks out near the tip, but that's easily avoided by changing your technique a bit to give more of a straight outward stroke as opposed to a traditional trailing type motion you would use on a stone. The worst damage was when one of us wasn't paying attention and clacked the handles into each other by mistake... natural reflex is to let go of the thing so it bumped its way down the knife blade and put several "scales" into the leather. No big deal though, they flattened right down and blended in fine.

The couple of bigger chunks taken out (or rather, shaved off usually) actually did the same, blended right back in with some use and a recharge on the compound. It seems to not impact the effectiveness at all!

I suppose my moral here is don't trash the strops straight away, because the leather can heal itself in a manner of speaking, unless you REALLY thrashed the poor things.

The problem (I'm guessing), is that you're copying Clay's videos for your technique (that is, up and away). But you're continuing the motion into a full semicircle, so that by the tip of the blade you're actually moving the strop downwards and into the tip. The other possibility is that you're pressing way too hard on the strop and just scraping the tip along the strop.

To fix, use short, up and away motions in a straight line, without arcing, and use very little pressure. Be especially careful near the tip and take your time, making sure to go away from the edge.

I got a couple of nicks on my strops on my first knife because of the semi-circle stropping motion I was using, but since then I haven't caused them anymore damage, and my knives all turn out just fine.

i manage to take several large chunks out of my strops first time i used them theres not a lot of room for error ,, in theory if you get the micro fines at .6 µm its as fine as stroping anyway .. although i am a newb so this just my opinion...

Don't get discouraged DFS... I know it's a bummer that it's not working like you thought it should, but stick with it, and you'll figure it out. Like Leo said, it's tough to diagnose with the limited information, but the suggestions others have given are all good, and one of them is probably the fix you need!

You might consider stropping the belly and tip area separately, work the straight area in one motion, then reset the strops and work toward the tip. This should insure that you're using an "away" motion.

Let us know what works for you... it's all a learning process. And like ApexGS mentioned, the leather may look bad, but will still do its job fine, so don't be too quick to throw them away.

Thanks everyone for the encouragement and advice. I'm definitely going to keep at it with my strops even though I'm missing so big chunks. I am going to order the micro ceramic stones as well. It sounds like I'm putting to much pressure on the strops maybe the stones as well. I'm also going to start working my long knives in 2-3 sections instead of one sweeping motion to see if that helps. I do have a follow up thought, is it possible to have had way to much compound on the leather? I'm removing a lot of green gunk when I use the strops. I also noticed that using an angle cube that 15 degrees in my weps is actually like 13 or 12 degrees. Is that normal? I know the cube is measuring correctly because I checked it's calibration. Sorry for all the newbie questions but this forum was a huge part of why I purchased. Great community growing here

It's normal for compound to come off at first, the leather will hold onto just as much compound as it needs. After a few knives it wont leave any on the blade. Rest assured, it doesn't hurt anything.

It's also normal for the angle cube and the WEPS settings to be off a couple of degrees. This is simply because of varying blade heights and thicknesses. Always trust your angle cube, the WEPS settings are just a rough idea of where to be.

When you strop it should be so light you are barely touching the edge. Make sure the strop is always moving away and go slow.use only a small thin film of paste