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Polishing Knives To Perfection With Leather Strops

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Before polishing knife

..pay attention to start it with the coarsest grain…

…if you’re polishing knife with compound.

Begin with stropping the blade’s tip…

…which is the front half of the blade.

With stropping, the angle isn’t as crucial…

…as it is with other techniques.

You’ll know if you’re on the right track…

..if the side of the blade shines instead of the edge.

Is there a scraping noise?

The angle can then be reduced somewhat…

Let’s get into this…

Polishing knife
Credit: eatingtools.com

Stropping is the process of polishing knife….

This is usually done on a leather strap…

…that has been applied to a hard surface.

Stropping smooths out the last flaws in the cut…

As a result, there is even more crispness….

It also has an aesthetic purpose: stropping makes the cut mirror-like….

This is also known as “mirror-edge.”..

Many people connect stropping with traditional razors…

…but it also benefits outdoor knives, pocket knives, and kitchen knives.

Keep reading…

It may be tough to believe…

..but sharpening a knife using a leather strop…

…will result in a much sharper cut.

One necessity is that you sharpen the knife ahead of time….

When it comes to Japanese whetstones…

…we recommend sharpening them until they reach..

…at least 5000 grain before stropping.

When you begin stropping…

…you will see an improvement quite quickly…

…depending on the steel quality and hardness of the blade.

When cutting a piece of paper with a non-stropped knife,…

…you’ll commonly notice that the knife catches and shreds the paper.

And the another special thing…

…we have good reference for you…

…who are looking for about best leather strop…

…this is our best recommendation for you!

Let us read Joe’s problem…

I am a new maker and l just start my hobby with knife…

…. but I have a problem with polishing knife company…

it looks simple but at the same time confusing.

I then read a blade lover forum…

in case anyone has any suggestions on how to solve this problem.

I really like the natural color of the leather…

and I don’t know how to keep it clean a natural colored.

 The choices may seem to be overwhelming, but keep in mind to achieve the desired results, polishing is usually a multiple step process. Determining how many steps are right for you will come with experience. 

knifemaking.com

Presents you recommended polishing compound kit…


A Gentle Start

Polishing knife
Credit: pinterest.com

Carefully pull the knife across the strop toward the back of the blade….

This keeps the strop from cutting. Check to see if you’re on the right track….

When something goes wrong, you’ll notice it without saying…

The strop should be used to cover the entire cut…

…slide the knife upwards towards the tip…

….so that the heel of the knife is also touched at the end of the strop.


Note The Center!

It would be perfect if you could move the blade’s center…

…from the tip down along the leather in one rapid yet subtle motion.

That sounds more difficult than it is. It guarantees that the blade’s core…

…which is the section you use the most, is as smooth as possible.

You apply light pressure, not too much….

When you press too hard on a cut, it destroys it…

…and puts you at danger of an accident.


Finishing

You repeat the process until you see that your progress is slowing.,,

You can now select a finer grain size as an option….

When you’re finished, carefully glide the cut down the strop…

…using only the weight of the knife as pressure.

This is for adding a finishing touch…

…to your polishing knife work as well as cleaning it.


Roughening Up Your Strop

You’ll notice the strop starting to turn black at some point…

This is a promising indicator!

The black color is actually steel from the cut that you polished….

The strop will begin to sparkle as well….

This isn’t a good thing because it means…

…your strop’s efficiency is rapidly deteriorating.

When a strop is a touch harsh, it is significantly more effective…

With a rougher strop, you’ll notice that you polish faster….

Roughening the strop is simple and can be done in a variety of ways….

A wire brush can be used to roughen up your strop….

Do not attack the leather straight away; instead…

..start lightly to evaluate how much pressure…

..you’ll need to roughen it up. This can also be done with a saw…

You can roughen the surface by moving the saw sideways across the strop…

Just be careful not to cause too much harm to the strop….


Stropping Compound Change

Polishing knife
Credit: youtube.com

After you polishing knife with compound…

If you want to switch from one stropping compound to another…

…you’ll need to remove the old one from the strop.

Perform the following steps to change from one compound time to another..

  • Sandpaper of a medium grit (240 is a good grade) should be used.
  • The sandpaper should be applied in a circular motion across the grain side of the leather strop, just enough to roughen the surface.
  • The surface of the strop should be cleaned and oiled.

It isn’t necessary to use polishing knife with compound..

…when stropping knives on a leather belt…

…you can use just the surface of the belt..

…and still achieve a good edge. However, stropping compound…

…can help increase the sharpness and polish of your kitchen knives.

Several good spolishing knife compounds that you can use..

..to maintain knives include the following:

  • Gritomatic CBN Stropping Compound
  • Venev Diamond Stropping Compound
  • Tormek Honing Compound
  • DMT DiaSpray Diamond Suspension

Using a polishing knife compound when you use your belt strop…

…can greatly improve the result of your knife sharpening task.


Stropping Compound Colors

Polishing knife
Credit: bladeforum.com

The compounds you use on your strop..

..will have a standard color scheme that indicates their “grit” (or “mesh”)..

…which determines how much metal they remove per stroke.

In most fields knives, black stropping is done..

…as the one and only step of sharpening from start to finish.

Black is used on dull blades in order to bring them up…

…to the point where the majority would consider the blade ready for use.

Green, a fine grit, used to finish off or polish a blade that’s already sharp…

…for a hair-popping edge. If you use green regularly…

…and don’t let your blade get less than razor sharp…

…then green is all you will ever need unless you damage the edge.

The white grit is used to polish the edge of a straight razor…

…or knife when extreme sharpness is desired.

Compounds with coarser grits are more aggressive and remove more metal…

They produce edges that are less finely polished, but work faster….

Compounds with a finer grit remove less metal and work more slowly…

…but they give the best results.

If you use a hard-use survival knife…

…you won’t be taking care to maintain a sharp edge…

..by stropping regularly as you use it.

Probably 90% of the stropping you’ll do with a hard-use knife…

…will be with black compound.

One compound color corresponds to one strop surface…

If you use black on a piece of leather…

…you won’t use white later on the same piece.

Therefore, if you only have one strop, you will only use black…

Changing from black to green to white might seem overkill for a survival knife..

…but once you learn good stropping technique…

…you’ll probably find yourself doing it just for the sake of it.

Polishing knife
Credit: cooksongold.com

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To Sum It Up

Before you looked into knife maintenance…

….you may not have heard of the polishing knife with compound..

…but even though this process is simple and doesn’t take long to complete…

….it plays a crucial role in making sure your kitchen knives remain sharp.

Otherwise, you will make your kitchen cutting duties more difficult at best…

…and you will risk injury at worst. 

Always ensure that you keep your knives at their best edge…

…by strapping and polishing knife with compound to a belt or other tool!


Conclusion

Now we already give you the information about polishing knife.

Let us hear your story about polishing knife!

Leave a comment below!

If you have more questions about polishing knife…

feel free to contact us!


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