# Sharpening vs Stropping



## jgraeff (Jan 20, 2013)

Hey guys so i have read tons of threads asking if stropping is necessary or worth it instead of just sharpening your knife.

i have been doing some experiments to see how it affects my knives. 

I find that i like stropping to prolong a full sharpening more than i like touching up my knives on a stone. Its faster, it works quite well and your not removing as much material from your knife. 

For me i want my knives to last as long as possible, and always be as sharp as possible so for example i have had my Mario custom for about 2.5 months and i have only sharpened it twice and i work in a pro kitchen and thats my main knife. 

As far as performance i find that after a while stropping will only do so much and then will get duller quicker, which is when i will touch it up on the stone to remove some fatigued steel. 

Once i feel the edge wont hold up anymore then i will go back through a full progression again but if i can get a month out of it rather than a week i think my knife will last a lot longer. 

what do you guys think? has anyone found any other techniques or different results?


----------



## franzb69 (Jan 20, 2013)

i strop on stones lately. stopped stropping on leather, doesn't seem to help me much or maybe it's just my technique or my abrassive media.


----------



## turbochef422 (Jan 20, 2013)

I strop on a king 6000 and if I have time I follow it with a balsa strop.


----------



## turbochef422 (Jan 20, 2013)

In a pro kitchen I do it almost every day to keep that just sharpened edge feeling


----------



## Sarge (Jan 20, 2013)

Perhaps I'm shortening the life of my knife but I don't really care I sharpen basically every other day sometimes every day. I don't do a full progression each time usually just touch ups but about once a week I drop down to my king 1.3k and then run back up to 6k. I don't have any strops and only strop on newspaper at the end of sharpening to help with deburring.


----------



## ThEoRy (Jan 20, 2013)

I've started keeping a dual loaded balsa strop in a sealed bag in my knife kit. Chromium on one side for the yanagiba and diamond on the other side for most everything else. Super convenient, and I'm not worried about getting it wet or damaged. This keeps the ceramic rod at bay too.


----------



## stevenStefano (Jan 20, 2013)

To be honest from using a variety of different knives, I think the maximum performance I can get out of any knives is about 2 weeks without sharpening or using the Mac rod. Stropping is pretty much essential to me


----------



## labor of love (Jan 20, 2013)

I strop on a rika to maintain my edges at work.


----------



## wenus2 (Jan 20, 2013)

jgraeff said:


> what do you guys think? has anyone found any other techniques or different results?


I agree with your conclusion here, my approach is the same.

Out of curiosity, what are you stropping with?
I have been using CrO on balsa and, although I am sorely tempted by diamond on felt, I don't think it's matters too too much so long as its some kind of appropriate stropping medium. I try to remember the over obsession of stropping materials that once existed on the other forum and avoid that in my own life. After all, there is always the frighteningly sharp crap Murray Carter turns out with his meager stone/strop solution...


----------



## Keith Sinclair (Jan 20, 2013)

labor of love said:


> I strop on a rika to maintain my edges at work.



Me too been stropping on polishing stones more these days,since I learned it fr. Murry Carter,works better for touchups than rods or strops.Just keep a soaker in some water.That being said I still like to finish wt the strop when returning knives it is a nice touch.


----------



## jgraeff (Jan 20, 2013)

wenus2 said:


> I agree with your conclusion here, my approach is the same.
> 
> Out of curiosity, what are you stropping with?
> I have been using CrO on balsa and, although I am sorely tempted by diamond on felt, I don't think it's matters too too much so long as its some kind of appropriate stropping medium. I try to remember the over obsession of stropping materials that once existed on the other forum and avoid that in my own life. After all, there is always the frighteningly sharp crap Murray Carter turns out with his meager stone/strop solution...




I'm using Markos strop felt loaded with diamond. I use 1 micron and .5 micron.

I have used stones however I haven't found just stropping on them to do much whereas the strop has instant feedback.


----------



## cwrightthruya (Jan 20, 2013)

I usually strop on a 1uM Diamond loaded Balsa block. Being a home cook, I can easily go for a month or better between full sharpenings.


----------



## panda (Jan 21, 2013)

ceramic rod then felt pad w flitz metal polish


----------



## Sarge (Jan 21, 2013)

Maybe I'm too rigid in my thinking but to me stropping on stones is just touching up on the stones. Just my thoughts not wanting to start a "what is stropping" debate


----------



## labor of love (Jan 21, 2013)

well, what i mean is that i "strop"on stones. stropping is stropping no matter what the medium is that your using.


----------



## Blobby (Jan 21, 2013)

You can use pretty much anything to strop. The palm of your hands (a bit hard with a knife, particularly a 270 gyuto) or really dirty (a few microns of filth) jeans or trousers are good. Just be careful not to stab your self in the thigh.


----------



## Birnando (Jan 21, 2013)

I use a 2 sided paddle strop from SRD most days.
One side is .5m diamond spray on felt, the other is a suede leather kept klean.

Other times I might use a 30K Shapton pro or a 20K Suehiro Gokumyo.


----------



## jgraeff (Jan 21, 2013)

labor of love said:


> well, what i mean is that i "strop"on stones. stropping is stropping no matter what the medium is that your using.



I don't see that as touching up, to me that's stropping. Touching for me is actually sharpening on my finishing stone to remove fatigued steel and bring back fresh edge. 

But that's my way of thinking I could be wrong.


----------



## Sarge (Jan 21, 2013)

jgraeff said:


> I don't see that as touching up, to me that's stropping. Touching for me is actually sharpening on my finishing stone to remove fatigued steel and bring back fresh edge.
> 
> But that's my way of thinking I could be wrong.



Makes sense to me. Like I said I'm probably too rigid in my definitions. But I like how you explained it here I can get behind that for sure


----------



## zitangy (Jan 22, 2013)

I use cow hide. THE rough side ( i believe is called raw hide) adn jewellers red rouge.

a) when the hide stands out or when it is rough, I know that the folded steel or burr is there. The more fine leather hair that stands up, the bigger the fold.Upon which I will apply a higher angle adn hopefully it breaks off, adn followed by lower angle.. IF the BUrr is large, it will basically scrape the raw hide

b) On some steels, you can see teh broken off wire edge or shiny shiny bits on the strop

c) whatever sharpness it leaves, I believe that it si only temporary as the fine polish or striations it leaves is too fine to have a lasting impression on the steel.

still I do it as with wet hands , it is sometimes difficult to feel the folded metal.

FInal analysis, I do it for ensure that teh burr is removed , to break off fatigues edge adn I suppose a slightly refined edge . Another possibility is perhaps it can leave a micro bevel on the edge if I start palying with teh refined edge.

Have fun
d


----------



## Marko Tsourkan (Jan 22, 2013)

I have a felt strop with 1Micron diamond and 8K diamond plate. Stropping can maintain the edge for a long time (for over a month in a pro kitchen, given steel and HT), however, when I need an extra "punch" without sharpening, I do a 2-3 passes on 8K diamond, and the edge is as good as new. Some steels respond to diamond much better than to water stones and alone J. nats.


----------

