Knife Sharpening: Leather Strops

Video Transcript

This is the final step in the sharpening process. This is just a plain piece of leather. You don't have to go out and buy a strop. You can use a plain old leather belt; something you pick up at a thrift store. You don't have to go spend a bunch of money on a leather strop. Basically, you're going to be doing the same thing barbers used to do with the straight razors. The leather polishes those little microscopic teeth off, so you end up with an edge that's like glass. If anybody has ever been cut by glass, you know it is really sharp, but it doesn't feel sharp. With the other stones, you saw me cutting into it. With the ceramic, I cut into it, and with the carbide stone, I cut into it. You want to do the opposite with the strop. If you cut into the strop, you'll be cutting your strop. The thing that's really neat about the leather strop is that the angle really doesn't matter. If you do it too flat, you're just polishing the side of the knife, and it doesn't damage it. If you do it too blunt that's fine, because the leather actually conforms to the edge. We're going to strop it a little bit. You want to listen for a hiss; almost like a snake hisses. You want to do this about fifteen to twenty times per side, and it's good to use pressure with this, because that leather is really slick. I've actually put some Jeweler's rouge on, to help the leather do its job a little bit quicker. It's okay to use pressure on the leather, and it's okay to use as much pressure as you want. It's really not safe to use a lot of pressure with the stone, because you're not as controlled, and you can slip. With the leather strop, just take it nice and easy; use pressure. Like I said; the leather is conforming to the edge, and actually polishing those little microscopic teeth off, and taking it from a saw blade to a blade that's like a piece of glass. When we're done, this knife should slice through those tomatoes like butter.

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