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Post by ineffableone on Jul 31, 2012 4:25:58 GMT
They shouldn't unless you go to town stropping for days. Even the more aggressive grit compounds should not take off much material.
Of course any grit will be working your blade metal down, just like sand paper, water stones, and other ways to sharpen. This is why eventually blades get used up and called "tired" as they have been sharpened and polished to the point they no longer can take any more and still be functional. Of course it takes a life time or two of sharpening and polishing to wear down a blade that far usually.
Stropping it a great way to hone up your blade regularly without nearly as much material being removed as with sand paper or water stones does.
If your doing lots of cutting, a regular stropping is the way to keep a good sharp edge and keep the geometry you like. You would need to use sandpaper sharpening or water stones only if you chip, roll, or other wise damage the blade past what the stropping can do.
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Post by Svadilfari on Jul 31, 2012 5:27:52 GMT
I'm curious..if you want to *start* to put a decent edge on a sword, and you don't have access to a belt sander..could one start off by stropping a blade with a reasonable edge by using not jewelers rouge or stropping compound, but automotive valve grinding paste on your strop ? Once your blade is reasonably sharp..you'd obviously have to switch to the much finer grade materials. Also..a hint for those who do strop their blades for that 'perfect' edge..make sure you store your strop so that it doesn't pick up any grit. Get grit on your strop, and you'll very quickly discover that your blade has obvious scratches
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Post by willhart on Jul 31, 2012 14:56:15 GMT
If you read my post, stropping with almost any color will hone your already really sharp sword sharper. If your sword isn't really sharp to begin with, this method is going to take forever to make it sharp.
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Post by willhart on Jul 31, 2012 15:01:26 GMT
I don't know anything about automotive valve griding paste, but if you're sword isn't sharp it's best to lower grits, which I don't think exists in any paste or rouge. They're normally made for polishing.
If you're blade isn't sharp, I would go down to 200-300 grit levels to get it sharp. At any grit level, you try to get it as sharp as you can at that grit level, or else you're going to be doing so much extra work. You want to establish the sharpest edge at 200-400 grit that you can. Everything after those grits is just to polish the edge so it's smoother and less jaggedy. I'm pretty sure all the jewelers rouge type compounds are in the 4000+ grit marks.
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Post by THE_SUPERWEIRDO on Jul 31, 2012 16:33:22 GMT
But since most swords people buy are already "Sharp", wouldn't the stropping technique make it "Razor sharp"? If not, then what is a method for it?
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Post by willhart on Jul 31, 2012 22:12:45 GMT
Depending on how sharp it already is, I guess stropping would bring paper cutting sharpness to the point of stupid/tomk/hair shaving sharpness. I guess it all depends on how sharp your sword is already. I tried stropping, but found that I wasn't seeing any results that were noticable. It tried it on a Hanwei Ninja-To, which was sharp, and was Ok at cutting paper. But using the strop for an hour didn't really do anything that I could tell. It could have been my skill at it. Now I don't think there is any one method you can use, with only one product to sharpen a sword to crazy sharp, unless the prior stages have already been done for you. With a wetstone, you need different grit wetstones, with sandpaper you need different grit sand paper (then finally stropping), with a belt sander you need different grit belts (finally using a leather stropping belt). You're starting at the last step of 2 of the common methods. But once again it depends on who and how the person before you sharpened the blade. I'm not saying it won't work, and I hope it would be great if it works for you. Take a look at this post, the 2 images of a magnified edge: forum.grtc.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=327&start=15This is what stropping will do, compared to to top image which was probably factory sharp edge with maybe 400grit (and sharp enough to easially cut tatami or water bottles or paper), but he also mentioned hitting it with 1000 grit Sandpaper first. So I guess it all depends on who sharpened it before you, if you can just use a leather strop without taking days to hone it.
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Post by THE_SUPERWEIRDO on Aug 1, 2012 0:18:25 GMT
Well, I do have 2 sheets of 1000 grit sand paper lying around, I guess that can help me... Though I doubt stropping is simpler than it looks. Is there some stuff that I have to know about stropping? Like preparing the strop before use? EDIT- I've seen a video on stropping that made me think if stropping is complicated than it looks:
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Post by Morpheus on Jan 9, 2013 14:44:10 GMT
Unfortunately,I hadn't seen this thread until now or else I would have addressed some of the questions raised, particularly ones concerning my video. I have been using this technique for years, which I stress is a finishing/polishing technique for very sharp blades that have perhaps lost the 'razor' edge due to tameshigiri or other such use. Barbers have been stropping their straight razors for shaving since the straight razor was invented. As mentioned in the video I use it on my old Shrade Oldtimer hunting knife and it guts/skins a deer quite efficiently but needs to be stropped again after such use to maintain that razor edge. The leather I use is tanned leather belt blanks available at Tandy Leathercraft stores or online. www.tandyleatherfactory.ca/en-ca ... 3-190.aspx I have also seen old belts used, which may have leather dye or other substances to make the belts glossy. I don't think that's a problem. I use the smooth side of the leather, but some seem to prefer the rough side. I get the white jewelers rouge from Tandy as well. A 1/8th lb cylinder of it is around $5 and lasts years. It is also available on Ebay. www.tandyleatherfactory.ca/en-ca ... ntryid=998 www.ebay.ca/itm/Tandy-Leathercra ... 0654872546 In leathercraft, the rouge is used to keep your swivel-knife sharp, stropping it on a scrap piece of leather ( have been working with leather for 30 years, on and off, as a hobby) www.ehow.com/video_4428799_use-s ... ather.html After much use the rouge may start to cake up on the leather and then it cracks and chips off and causes scratches so occasionally I will clean up the leather with a scraper and some medium sandpaper and re-apply the rouge. Note that rouge is applied frequently through-out the stropping process. There may be other techniques and there may be better techniques to keeping a good sharp, polished edge on your swords, but this has always worked well for me , it is easy and economical and it is quite safe for your blade because, as mentioned, it takes very little from the blade. In fact, white rouge is such a fine compound that I'm sure more material is removed when just polishing a blade with Autosol or Metal Glo. Although I have fixed a rolled edge using this technique, it literally took hours of work.
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Post by lamebmx on Jan 10, 2013 2:58:02 GMT
I gotta make mention. With straights, when the leather doesnt pick up the edge, its time for the linen side of a hanging strop. That can also be used with pastes etc. I am amazed it fixed a rolled sword/knife edge. Though I have heard with straights and a possible rolled edge, a crapload of passes on linen then a crapload more on the leather have restored edges without going to the stones. Another thing, also from razors, is that is is a maintenance kind of thing. Much better when done every session, before it actually dulls, than to try and bring an edge back.
I also read somewhere to not use it on a sword that will be traditionally polished by stones. The wax will gunk up the stones. With my beater, I notice it on the stones. when done with a paste, it takes some effort to get the wax off so they get oiled up proper. green compound kinda beads up choji for lack of a better explanation.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Feb 21, 2013 15:38:29 GMT
Yes, you can buy powdered and paste grit, it is a bit slower - if you do use a lower grit then write the grit number on the strop, on no account use the same strop with different grits. I have six or seven at any one time.
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