# Is stropping woodcarving tools common practice?



## woodcarverhurr

Hey everyone,

I just started whittling and know that I need to sharpen it frequently to prevent the edge from getting dull, but I'm trying to find out the different between using a high grit sharpening stone and using stropping with compound.

This post does a great job at explaining HOW to strop with different woodcarving knives and apply the compound
https://www.bestwoodcarvingtools.com/best-leather-strop-for-a-mirror-polish-edge/

but it doesn't explain what the difference is so I'm confused on what to purchase.

Sharpening stones seem to be slightly more expensive than strops, and both seem to take care of things like blade blemishes and rolled edges. So I'm a little torn between the two.

Any advice?


----------



## John Smith_inFL

I don't know if it is a "common" practice among carvers today to strop their tools
as the diamond stones are becoming more popular. (so it may be an age/generation thing).
I guess I am too Old School and I have an assortment of leather strops which is
leather glued to plywood with different grades of buffing rouge on each one.
I think this is just another "personal choice" in the wood shop.










.


----------



## Planeman40

Let me give you some advice from an old codger who has been at this for 60+ years.

1. I view sharpening as divided into two parts, (1) shaping the edge, (2) sharpening the edge.

2. Shaping the edge is rough work that can be done on a grinder as long as you don't over heat the edge (it begins to turn blue). Constantly dip it into a jar of water to keep it cool.

3. The actual sharpening begins with a coarse grit (around 200 to 300 grit) You want to refine the grinding, finish any needed small shaping, and remove all of the coarse scratches from the grinding wheel.

4. You now want to move through two or three sharpening stones of increasing fineness until you get to around 600 to 1000 grit. The object is to remove all of the scratches from the preceding stone. I favor diamond "stones" for this. I use the ones from Harbor Freight which work very well. Periodic viewing of the sharpened surface under magnification as you work is very helpful, particularly if you are new at this. Watch your progress and learn.

5. At this point you move to the very finest stone. Personalty, I favor Arkansas stones as they are hard and stay flat unlike water stones which are messy and wear relatively quickly and need periodic flattening.

6. Now its time to check to see if you really have sharpened your edge enough. This is hard to determine for beginners. The best way and the one I use is to use a 2X (two power) magnifying visor. Walmart has one for $13 that is probably as good as the $40 ones. A jeweler's loupe would work too. Shine a strong light directly on to the sharp edge and view the edge through the magnifier. If you see the edge as a streak of white light, the light is reflecting off the edge. You are not sharp enough. Go back a step or two and work some more on the edge until when you view the edge as above you see NO light! That means the edge is so sharp as to not reflect the light!

7. Now you need to final polish the edge by honing. These hones all use an ultra-fine abrasive like jeweler's rouge (an abrasive in wax) worked into the surface to do the polishing. Keep "stropping' the edge like a barber strops a straight razor until you can easily shave the hair off your forearm !!! THAT's the final test.

A good source of sharpening supplies can be had here: https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/

Also, take a look at the wood carving gouges and knives I made a short while back: http://lumberjocks.com/Planeman40/projects


----------



## Lazyman

I seem to recall that Mary May uses diamond stones followed by a strop. Her online classes are pretty good for beginners. Here is a link to the free classes, which includes her sharpening techniques and she posts videos on YouTube as well. If you are just starting out these are worth a look.


----------



## TheWoodenOyster

Short answer - the grand majority of videos, books, articles etc. on carving that I have ever seen do include stropping as a vital part of the sharpening regimen of carving tools.


----------



## Unknowncraftsman

I use both as planeman points out stones are for shaping. As in changing the bevel angles on your knives.
You will be lucky if a new knife is ready to cut. 
Most will need some work.
I strop edges for very fine work just enough to draw out a small wire on the edge.But you have to be careful not to over do it. 
Good luck








These are my favorite or best carving knifes they all have different shapes.I used a stone with good light to shape them.


----------



## John Smith_inFL

an assortment of "slips and Stones" is nice to have in your bag also.
the further you advance in the hobby, the more "stuff" you will collect.
and to spill some blood on your workpiece is a Right of Passage.










.


----------



## Carl10

It depends on how good of a finish you want on your work. My dad (when he was alive) started writing a book on sharpening (but never finished). Along the way of his years of carving he would always strop his blades after sharpening. Later he developed and sold the 'Power Strop' . It is several ~1/4 leather discs glue together and mounted on a mandrel that you could power with a drill fixed to a bench, etc (some sharpening machines now have these type of wheels attached). I was fortunate enough to absorb a little of his knowledge. What he saw under a microscope after sharpening, but before stropping, were tiny burs still holding onto the new edge. More sharpening would not remove them, but stropping would. Without the stropping you sometimes see the gouges left in the wood from the burs. This would depend on the wood of course, but a stropped edge also makes easier cuts.

Hope this helps.

Carl


----------



## TravisH

I do initial sharpening with stones, sand paper, etc…. once there a loaded strop is used frequently as I carve and rarely go back to more aggressive means unless I drop a knife or hit something hard with it to damage the edge.
Cut quality will tell you when to strop.

Basswood and paulowina about all I have carved however and both carve very easy.


----------



## ClaudeF

I do the same as Travis: the only time a stone touches my knives is when I break a tip off, or drop one, or otherwise get a nick in the blade edge. The rest of the time I use a strop every 20-30 minutes when carving. The cheapest, and easily most effective, strop is one made from a flat board such as MDF, with a strip of cereal box cardboard glued to it with rubber cement. The cereal box cardboard has stropping compound rubbed on it. I use the green 0.5 micron chromium oxide on one strop and on another strop I have the Flexcut Gold. The cardboard is very thin so as the knife edge is drawn over it, it does not spring back up as most leather will. When the strop springs back up, it rounds the edge of the blade. The light reflecting from the edge is a good indicator of the sharpness (or lack thereof…). Another is to cut across the end grain of a piece of basswood. The cut surface should be smooth and shiny. Any nick in the edge will appear as a little line along the cut surface.

I also don't use a stone on my gouges and V tools unless I have a nick in them.

Claude


----------



## TheFridge

Yep


----------



## waho6o9

Thank you Claude, good stuff!

http://www.wkfinetools.com/z_search/searchR.htm?cx=partner-pub-4701461783987714%3A6045599587&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=sharpening+carving+tools&sa=Search&siteurl=www.wkfinetools.com%2Fz_search%2FsearchR.htm&ref=duckduckgo.com%2F&ss=12359j37926003j24

HTH

http://contrib1.wkfinetools.com/jThompson/jThompson-index.asp


----------



## polaski

What everyone said. Stropping is the final dressing on a very sharp carving knife. Some knives made with specific steel (like FlexCut) can be stopped frequently without going to sharpening stones.


----------



## rwe2156

Chris Pye has the best instructional on sharpening IMO.


----------



## rad457

Not just carving tools but also chisels. I just use a flat piece of hardwood loaded with green compound and give the blades a few strokes every so often.


----------



## Phil32

Woodcarverhurr - Like you, I started with whittling with a knife, and soon discovered that my knife blade would get dull. So I would carry a pocket stone. With a little spit and elbow grease I'd get it back to its previous sharpness. But as I got deeper into carving, I found that technique was not good enough. I then added a leather strop to my sharpening routine. 
The process has continued to evolve. Now I use an oil stone only if the cutting edge is damaged. I maintain the edges of my tools, mostly gouges now, with green compound on cereal box cardboard. 
There are many rituals for sharpening hand tools. Try one. If it doesn't make your tools "carving sharp." try another. But go slow. Rushing the process is likely to damage your favorite knife or gouge.


----------



## DrDirt

Stropping is common. Either on a leather strop or some use a buffing wheel with compound

Also the leather disk on the worksharp is excellent for touching up spoons and gouges


----------



## MyChipCarving

I consider sharpening to be the first step and honing the final step (as some have already alluded to)
Once you have a scary sharp edge, you can keep that edge with regular honing on a leather strop.
You can watch my video on this at the bottom of this product page https://mychipcarving.com/product/sharpening-kit/
When I'm carving I will strop every 20 minutes. Rarely do I have to go back to the Sharpening Kit as long as I hone regularly.
Hope this helps!


----------



## Planeman40

I get asked about this often enough that I now keep a copy on my computer. Here it is.

Carving tools must RAZOR sharp! Even the best carving tools are never really sharp enough when purchased. So you must learn to sharpen until you can literally shave the hair off your forearm. Yes, this is the actual final test.

As to "stones", everybody has their preferences and in the end they all seem to work. The object is to use the coarsest "stones" to shape the blade and bring it to a sharp edge. Then you begin polishing the edge until it is a mirror finish. In the process a "wire edge" will be produced that will bend/break off. You have to get rid of this. The best way I have found is to jab the blade edge into the end grain of a piece of wood. This knocks the wire edge off to get you back to solid metal. So work your way sharpening through finer and finer "stones" (three is usually enough) until you get to that "almost" razor sharpness. Then you finish up with "honing" with super fine abrasive in a leather "strop", polishing even more. Stop every so often between "stones" to remove as above any wire edge that has formed. Test by shaving on your forearm. If it isn't sharp enough, go back a step or two and repeat. Once you have a razor sharp blade you will only need a quick strop from time to time as you work.

My preference for "stones" (I write it this way as old fashion actual stones have been replaced by more modern grits like diamonds, etc.) is to shape the rough and abused blade with a coarse diamond sharpener. This works fast but leaves deep scratches in the steel. You then have to begin remove these scratches by polishing the steel. You can use finer diamond "stones', water stones, carborundum stones, Arkansas stones, etc. to do the polishing. I use finer diamond stones for this. Then I move to Arkansas stones to finish the sharpening before honing. I prefer Arkansas stones as they work well and stay flat over time, unlike water stones which are very soft and wear. These have to be "flattened" periodically.

I have found that being able to actually see the edge under magnification is a great help to knowing how you are doing. I use a cheap Harbor Freight 2x (power) lens visor to do this. The trick is to view the edge straight on using a very bright light. If the edge is not sharp, you will see the edge as a thin bright strip of light reflecting off the edge. If the edge is sharp there will be no light reflecting off the edge.

I make my own leather strops to various shapes and sizes using leather bought from Tandy leather supply (https://www.tandyleather.com/en/). You have to embed the leather surface with a fine abrasive. This can be bought online from most of the woodworking sources. Personally, I use Turtle Wax car polish for this.

And while we are on "sharpening", don't forget the use of a sharpening "steel". These are the round things you often see fancy chefs use on their knife when cutting a roast. These are round in shape and have fine grooves like a file. What happens to a razor sharp edge, especially a narrow one, it the edge gets bent some to the side in use. The steel straightens out the edge. It only works with an already sharp edge so it can be classified as a type of hone. Great things! I use a little one on my cutting edges.

Sources:
https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Carving-Tool-Sharpening-C30.aspx


----------



## Planeman40

Talking about all of this reminds me of my dad stropping his pocket knife in the bottom of his leather soled shoe. As a kid I often wondered how this did any good, leather against steel. But now I realize the fine grit embedded in the surface of the leather sole did the job. The older generation knew a thing or two!!!


----------



## Phil32

Even at the time of your dad there were some who needed to carry sharpness to a much higher level - barbers, for example. It is fairly easy for me to achieve the sharpness I need on the pocket knife I carry around for clipping dead growth in my garden. But for woodcarving, the fine expressions I want to put into wood, for extended periods, the level of sharpness needed is very high.

Many woodcarvers struggle with this challenge. They may get good at sharpening knife blades or straight edged chisels, but curved gouges, V-tools, etc. are really challenging. Every shape requires a different technique.


----------

