# Strop -- Leather or Felt?



## larrybard (Nov 2, 2014)

Relatively simple question, I hope: If I were to acquire a strop, would leather or felt be preferable?

Possibly relevant background: Am purely amateur home cook. Just about to begin sharpening my knives, using a "starter" set of stones from Dave Martell (Beston 500, Bester 1200 and Suehiro Rika 5000). Intend to devote most of my sharpening attention, at least initially, to carbons (though (I do own other steels, that I would eventually sharpen once I felt reasonably proficient).


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## Doug Seward (Nov 2, 2014)

I have always used leather mounted on a wood backing board charged with green chrome compound. However, I don't often uses stones and usually belt sharpen to Norax x16 then strop. -Doug


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## brianh (Nov 2, 2014)

New to sharpening and also a home cook but Dave turned me on to hard felt and I really like it. Be warned that all is not equal with hard felt. Thou that shall not be named has hard felt but it stinks. Way too soft. I got my felt from Marko and it's totally different.


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## larrybard (Nov 2, 2014)

brianh said:


> New to sharpening and also a home cook but Dave turned me on to hard felt and I really like it. Be warned that all is not equal with hard felt. Thou that shall not be named has hard felt but it stinks. Way too soft. I got my felt from Marko and it's toto ally different.



Thanks. That's especially useful information because this question arose out of a generous offer by Marko to give leather or felt strops to the most recent purchasers of his knives (due to a delay in delivery -- a shortcoming that is consequential only in his imagination, IMO).


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## Dave Martell (Nov 2, 2014)

You can get a better edge from leather but it's also easier to screw up using it and that's because it wants to wrap around the edge causing rounding. If you have great stropping technique/control (or want to learn what that is) then leather can work well. 

If you're technique is questionable and you desire to get a good edge without the likelihood of screwing up then felt is the way to go. It's just a lot more forgiving. 

All that said, get some crappy leather or felt and you'll not get good results regardless.


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## Keith Sinclair (Nov 2, 2014)

Exactly Dave pressure is applied when sharpening blade creating a burr. Everything else is a light touch, burr removal on stone, newspaper, strops.


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## Geo87 (Nov 2, 2014)

Larry: if you are going to be learning to sharpen on waterstones my advice would be to ovoid using a strop until your happy with the edges you are getting off the stones. Keep it simple and learn one thing at a time  
Once your happy with your off the stones edge then try light edge trailing strokes on your strop.


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## LKH9 (Nov 2, 2014)

A nice piece of good quality corrugated cardboard is all you need. Just take care not to overstrop your newly sharpened knives and ruin the edge.


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## chinacats (Nov 2, 2014)

Agreed with what's been said here. I use and like Marko's felt strop more as an edge refresher than a tool in a sharpening progression. I do think it can be fun to get a screaming edge with leather, but it doesn't last long enough to be worth it for more than occasional entertainment purposes.


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## larrybard (Nov 2, 2014)

Dave Martell said:


> You can get a better edge from leather but it's also easier to screw up using it and that's because it wants to wrap around the edge causing rounding. If you have great stropping technique/control (or want to learn what that is) then leather can work well.
> 
> If you're technique is questionable and you desire to get a good edge without the likelihood of screwing up then felt is the way to go. It's just a lot more forgiving.
> 
> All that said, get some crappy leather or felt and you'll not get good results regardless.



Dave, Thanks for the advice. Always appreciate having the benefit of your experience and expertise. I don't think "crappy" quality is a potential issue, inasmuch as the leather or felt would come from Marko. As for leather stropping technique, just yesterday I watched the stropping portion of your DVD, so now I should have great technique, right? :bliss:


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## EdipisReks (Nov 2, 2014)

I use both. Some steels respond better to one over the other. I use neither as part of a progression, they are for refreshing edges, as has been mentioned. I've had good luck with the strops from star shaving. They are inexpensive, to boot.


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## Keith Sinclair (Nov 3, 2014)

Star strops are cheap, by 10 at a time, save more coin. I do that & sell them to students at cost.


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## Karnstein (Nov 4, 2014)

Dave Martell said:


> All that said, get some crappy leather or felt and you'll not get good results regardless.



May I ask what a good and what a bad felt for stropping is? I guess even the thickest felt one can buy at the average cloth/fabric-store or department store still isn't that useful for stropping, right?


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## Dave Martell (Nov 4, 2014)

Karnstein said:


> May I ask what a good and what a bad felt for stropping is? I guess even the thickest felt one can buy at the average cloth/fabric-store or department store still isn't that useful for stropping, right?




The stuff that you get at fabric stores isn't the same stuff we're talking about, that's more cloth like then what we're discussing. The stuff that's sold as (SAE here in the US) gasket material is close but yet isn't the good stuff . Unfortunately this gasket material is what's most often seen when you buy a felt strop. The best stuff comes from India and is very dense (compressed) at about 1/2 it's original thickness. It's most often listed as rock hard but that's just a name, many of the felt strop makers sell rock hard and it should really be called soft fuzz instead because when compared with real rock hard it's just not in the same league. 

So how can you tell what you're getting? You can't. You can buy from almost any available source in the internet and get inferior felt for stropping. You have to have a trusted source, trying to buy from whoever is just going to disappoint, trust me on this.


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## Mr.Wizard (Nov 20, 2014)

I want to try (true) rock hard felt. Where can I get the good stuff? This is out of stock, and when I click the category name nothing comes up which makes me think that item listing might be an orphan.


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## Sabaki (Nov 20, 2014)

I use a 1,5-2mm thick balsa wood glued to a flat piece of wood, about same size as a waterstone and just add polish/diamond spray you prefer

Works great!


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## toddnmd (Nov 20, 2014)

Mr.Wizard said:


> I want to try (true) rock hard felt. Where can I get the good stuff? This is out of stock, and when I click the category name nothing comes up which makes me think that item listing might be an orphan.



A while back I got a nice felt strop (mounted on walnut) that Marko Tsourkan made. I think he's away now, but I'd suggest emailing him to see if he might do another batch of those.


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## Mr.Wizard (Nov 20, 2014)

Thank you. (I wish this forum software had a "thank you" button like the Wicked Edge forum does.)


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## mark76 (Nov 21, 2014)

Yes, I also use balsa wood (with CBN spray). None of the disadvantages of leather and holds the spray very well.


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