Just wondering how often to reload my 5 & 3.5 micron strops with diamond paste? Wasn't sure if there was a sound or feel while your using them or if it's just a result from your stroping that you look for.

It depends on a lot of things, but a load should be good for 20+ knives. Use it sparingly.

Regards
Leo

I don't reload them very often. Also make sure you don't put too much paste on the strops. I find they work best when they are quite "sticky", so they have a lot of burnishing power. Only when they get so sticky I can hardly move them anymore in a normal way I reload them.

Clay sometime revitalizes his strops with alcohol and has written that worked quite well, but I've never tried that.

I use alcohol on them every time. I take a paper towel and wet it with alcohol. Then I pat the the strops just enough until I can see they are not dry (but not "wet" either). I use a clean spot of the towel to not cross contaminate. Doing this seems to make them stickier.

Do they need frequent applications at first to built up a base? The leather does not seem to absorb any paste. It all wipes off on the blade.

Not really. I rub them together to help work it in... others use a little alcohol on the strop.

cbwx34 wrote:


When I frist got my stops and WEPS paste, I blew it. I put way too much paste on the leather. I used half of the syringe between the two stops. The paste was coming off when I stropped and basically was a mess.
If you distribute about %20 of the syringe over the two strops you will be better off. Meaning you should get ... atleast 5 applications per syringe. Really a nice thin even coat is all that you need for at least 20 knives, maybe even 30 or so. I wouldn't even obsess about having the coating super even... it is hard to do with the weps pastes. If you get 80% of the area that you use for sharpening covered well and a few thin spots, it will not hurt anything. Just don't overdo he paste application. I think spots that are a little thin are better than areas that have too much pate on them. You will waste the paste and not get the results that you want. Besides, the paste is not cheap... use sparingly.

I have used a bit of alcohol Isopropyl 90%, with a bit of cotton ball just moist, to thin and distribute the paste. Just not too much alcohol... and not a lot of pressure. You doin't want to wipe the paste off just smear it thinly.

Phil

PhilipPasteur wrote:


Even that seems like a lot... for the first application I put 3 or 4 drops sorta evenly spaced down the strop, then rub it in. After that, I just put 1 or 2 drops and rub the strops together to keep them refreshed. I've only refreshed mine 2 or 3 times, and I think I've got more than 5 applications left.

You can tell they're working if they're getting black (and of course by what the knife looks like).

Clay's written several times that it doesn't take much, for example...

wickededge wrote:

Curtis..
You are proabaly right... let me rephrase what I said. Just enough to get a even light coat.. whatever that takes..
I was trying to visualize what I use compared to what is in a new syringe... may well have estimated on the high side.

How do you get drops? The stuff I have is too thick to get it to make drops??

Phil

Bang on Curtis! In an earlier post in this thread I said to use the paste sparingly and I meant sparingly ...20% or even close to that is not at all necessary and wasteful. I spoke to Clay about this and he recommends a thin dab of paste about the width of your pinkie fingernail and and about inch long. This amount is worked in and spread evenly over the whole face of the strop and in my experience is good for 75 knives or so depending on use of the individual strop. A tube of paste should last for a long, long time.

Leo
P.S. I have edited twice so far...too early in the morning for this brain to work without a coffee. I think I am clear now.