Stropping Question

[legOFwhat?]

How often do you all reapply diamond compound to your strops? I imagine that the micro diamonds in the paste/emulsion would embed into the leather initially then get shoved around with each blade pass.

Asking for a friend :)

[Josh Crutchley]

How often do you all reapply diamond compound to your strops? I imagine that the micro diamonds in the paste/emulsion would embed into the leather initially then get shoved around with each blade pass.

Asking for a friend :)

I just buy thin balsa wood from a craft store and make new ones when they're no longer effective. I've only messed around with diamond paste on leather a little bit and would use the spine of a knife to scrape off the old stuff. Never tried sprays and emulsions so can't comment on those. If the sprays weren't so expensive compared to the pastes I would have already bought some. I just ordered some Venev compound in a chap stick tube, 1 and .5 micron, it should work better than the ebay paste I'm currently using. Two tubes and shipping from Ukraine is cheaper than one bottle of the spray/emulsion.

[legOFwhat?]

How often do you all reapply diamond compound to your strops? I imagine that the micro diamonds in the paste/emulsion would embed into the leather initially then get shoved around with each blade pass.

Asking for a friend :)

I just buy thin balsa wood from a craft store and make new ones when they're no longer effective. I've only messed around with diamond paste on leather a little bit and would use the spine of a knife to scrape off the old stuff. Never tried sprays and emulsions so can't comment on those. If the sprays weren't so expensive compared to the pastes I would have already bought some. I just ordered some Venev compound in a chap stick tube, 1 and .5 micron, it should work better than the ebay paste I'm currently using. Two tubes and shipping from Ukraine is cheaper than one bottle of the spray/emulsion.

Haven't tried the Venev Chapstick but might give it a try. I've tried the Bark river 1 Micron CBN Emulsion and it works great but at $30 for 1oz bottle I've been stingy with it. The cheap paste in the syringes from Amazon works but it's more messy.

I think one of my problems is technique, where I just press too hard into the strop.

[Josh Crutchley]

Haven't tried the Venev Chapstick but might give it a try. I've tried the Bark river 1 Micron CBN Emulsion and it works great but at $30 for 1oz bottle I've been stingy with it. The cheap paste in the syringes from Amazon works but it's more messy.

I think one of my problems is technique, where I just press too hard into the strop.

Yeah you got to be careful when using something soft like leather. If you push too hard it will work against you and round the apex off.

The other day I modified my Worksharp Precision Adjust so I could use it to strop. They only come with 2 diamond stones and a ceramic one but no strop. I didn't want to pay the ridiculous price for their upgrade kit so I made one myself. I also added bushings to the stone carrier.