knife stropping ???????'s

[Dennis Taylor]

I have a murphy knife from Rick (beginners kit), cuts like going thru butter, have another knife Flexcut(roughing knife) also cuts nicely...noticed Rick's Murphy knife seems to lay flat, and the flexcut has a bevel, shy of removing metal from the Flexcut blade, should I just strop with finger pressure on the blade at the cutting edge, to maintain the angle and lay the other Murphy flat?.....some of the knifes seems to be sharpened flat and others with a bevel...the Flexcut is a roughing knife and has a pretty wide bevel on it...needing to strop and wanting to ensure I am doing it right...Dennis

p.s. not good at this, but enjoying myself!....no band-aids yet!

[Clifford_Parker]

Dennis,

You have the right idea. The Flexcut blade with the bevel should be lifted slightly at the back to set the bevel at the correct angle to the strop and the Murphy laid flat.

[Wes Leitch]

I would heavily recommend going to your nearest carving store and getting a 30 second hands on stropping tutorial. Assuming this is not possible, I will try and teach you the method that I learned last year at the International Carving Conference which I find works best for me.
Lay your flexcut knife on the strop at about a 10 degree angle. Run it down to almost the end of the strop, keeping the blade in contact at all times. Stop, but do not take the knife off the strop. You will then flip the knife over, keeping the back end (non-bladed side) of the knife on the strop. Then repeat going the other way.
Running the knife down the strop restores the edge, however if you are turning the knife over with the blade in contact with the strop you would be rounding the blade every time you flipped it over to strop the other way. Hope these instructions were simple and helpful.