After using your leather hone for a very short time there is a buildup of steel on the hone. Do you clean this off or just add more compound over top? I use Herb's yellowstone compound and have been scraping the hone and then adding new compound.

[Colin_Partridge]

Tim,
No need to clean off that strop, my experience is the blacker it gets the better it works. Just keep adding compound I have been doing just that to mine for years and it seems to strop up my knifes and gouges just fine. Now maybe I am wrong because I know on my acrylic stones I clean them off when they get black with Comet or other cleanser. I will be interested to see what others on this board say it is a really good question.
Colin

[Bandaid]

Unless the surface gets 'lumpy' from a buildup of compound you shouldn't have to clean your strop prior to adding a fresh supply. I think the key is not to add too much at a time as a little goes a long way. In this case, more ain't better.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I don't clean mine either...at least normally, if it gets lumpy or really heavy buildup, I just take the back of a knife a scrape off the excess...but I think I have only had to do that once!

[squbrigg]

I use my strop all the time, with green compound and never had to clean it off, hardly ever have to add compound either. My strop is a home made job, a 3' wide strip of leather, about 12' long, glued to a shaped maple 'paddle'. I also have that little strop set up from Flexcut, with the various shapes for gouges and vieners, and it has a small leather pad too, uses gold compound, I use that for smaller gouges and it works really slick!

Of course, doesn't take many swipes of a blade on the strop to restore the edge. Hardly ever use the stones once I get the bevel I want and a good edge on, unless I nick a blade.

Bob

[dart]

I clean my little strop off with the back of my knife blade. Then put new red jeweler's rouge on. I do this because it gets dirty and lumpy. If too much is on the strop, it lumps into one area. If it's dirty, it doesn't hone my knife edge. But that's just my thing I do and my strop is a 3/4'x3/4'x8' piece of wood with a piece of leather belt screwed at both ends to keep it in place. So it does build up in one place quickly. I think I'll start using some of the other sticks of abrasive that I have to see if it works any better. I got my sticks of abrasives at Sears in the hardware department.

[FK]

One tip for strop use was given to me by Herb Dunkel the inventor of Yellowstone. He recommends a very thin and hard piece of leather, this helps prevent the rounding over of the edge common with most thick leather strops.

Herbs strops are made from pig skin leather and are very thin. They are glued to a piece of oak.

He also recommends stopping at the end of your stroke on the strop, then lifting straight up and away,,,,do not filp the knife at the end of the strop (like the old time barbers) this will cause rounding or dubbing to the edge.

I use an old woodworking scraper blade to clean off the heavy abrasive/steel particles on the leather surface. The stropping compound should be applied frequently for best cutting action, this will allow quick stropping and more time carving. The black build up does not cut very efficiently and takes too much time away from carving.

I also use the green chrome oxide from Lee Valley, this is very good compound with fine particles. Not all green compound is the same, the color is added for manufacturers identification and many companies use the green color.

Regards,
Fred Krow

[AlArchie]

Only one correction to Fred's post, and that's a of a mistaken observation some of us old timers made of the barbers' technique. Most of us assumed the razor blade was flipped over the edge, but one barber told me that the correct way barbers turn the blade is over the BACK; no possibility of rolling the angle too steeply that way. I've adjusted my technique and find that this is just as fast and comfortable once I got used to it! It does require adjusting your grip on the knife. Try it, you'll like it!

Al

[Chahlie]

Hi All,

So far I have used the 'Flex-Cut' strop with the accompanying yellow stone quite a bit without any significant buildup...sure makes the surface pretty and shiny. So far I haven't invested in the ceramic stones I want but until I do 320, 800, 1200 and 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper does just fine for correcting edge problems(the inevitable knicks). I would think that as long as the compound doesn't have lumps in it then just keep using it unless you just want to. I do use the yellow stone from 'Flex-Cut' like a crayon and just add a little as needed.

I havn't had to scrape mine off yet.

The leather is just to hold the compound and so long as it is doing that, I wouldn't worry about it.

I know if the leather has been treated, that can affect it's ability to hold the compound.

I guess that it could eventually build up to where it won't work right, but then you have to ask if you are using too much yellowstone vs. how much use the strop has been getting.

My opinion is that you shouldn't have to regularly scrape the compound off.

-Michael