Let's talk about hand stropping. I would consider myself an intermediate hand stropper. I started a year ago, but didnt go crazy practicing until about a month ago.

What leather do you like to make your strops from?
Do you buy strops from different places?
Compounds - yes, no, differences?

I recently purchased from KSF (knivesshipfree.com), a 2 sided leather hand strop with the Bark River black, and green compound. I heated the leather, heated the compound, mixed in some mineral oil, and really loaded the green side up well. The black compound didn't seep in quite as well, but overall the whole package is excellent. Stropping even a standard Kershaw factory edge made it able to push cut newspaper after 20 or so swipes on the black, and 10 or so on the green. My Spyderco's are almost hair whittling sharp doing it by hand.

Do you prefer soft nap or harder nap leather?

edhead35 wrote:


I love hand stropping, I don't know why but I find it really relaxing and a great way to give my EDC knives a little attention. I even strop in my office during the day when stuck on long conference calls (a little weird, I know).

I have bought few strops from a fellow on eBay (apluslandscape) and been real pleased with Robert, even had him make a custom small 2 sided block strop (2x2x6) that I use at work). He also got me into trying out whittling. All his strops are rough side out (unless you ask for smooth), but to be honest I would probably prefer smooth for the red compound as it takes a lot of breaking in and I'm on the lower grits these days (due to the WEPS).

After using the wicked edge for a bit though I am thinking of switching to just a smooth dual sided 5/3u or 3/1u diamond paste strop for hand touchups. The diamond paste seems quite a bit more efficient.

I started with the Black/Green before the wicked edge, but since using the wicked edge I have switched to Green/Red and I mostly use just the red for a quick touchup. I felt the black was too aggressive (I come off the WEPS at 1u), and I like the red for a quick hit after using the knife for a bit to set the edge or polish off a little tape residue. The red seems to me to be very focused on literally just polishing and not very abrasive at all.

Ed, I have a question. The hand stropping that you talk about, is it like a belt? I'm visualizing the barber strop. Do you have it hanging in the kitchen for quick touch-ups? Do you have a pic or are there videos of it anywhere? If we come off the WE at 3micron, what color paste would be good for touch ups!

www.knivesshipfree.com/product_info.php?products_id=1759

It is mounted on a wood paddle. I would say go with a paste that is at least as fine as your 3 micron off the WE. Bark River compounds though are usually a little rougher if you go by the color standard from what I hear. I would just buy the paddle next time, and skip the bark river. I would buy something else of higher quality.

I went on eBay and saw tons of leather strops. I couldn't find apluslandscape tho ds. I have more question about the paste. Does anyone have a suggestion about color or brand for a large strop. Seems like the red or what they call pink is the finest bit I didn't see any micron numbers on it.

www.chefknivestogo.com/handamerican.html has alot of stuff.

Of course you can use WE compounds on your own strops

Another great block style strop is www.knivesplus.com/KPSTROP.HTML It is heavily preloaded with green compound.