[muffy]

Im new to carving carving and would like to know when my honeing leather is all caked up with the good stuff if i throw it out or clean it. I have quite a build up of gunk and just keep adding more & more. It dont seem to work as well as it did when it was new. Can someone please help????????

[Nancy_G]

Muffy, if you feel like your hone is too gunked up, it probably is so just scrape all the gunk off with a really dull knife -- even a kitchen butter knife or the back side of a carving knife.
Scrape all the gunk off down to the leather and you're ready to start all over again. I have leather hones I've been using for 14 years ... I don't plan to ever throw one away.

[Captain_Bandaid]

Muffy, if you are new to carving and your strop is already all full of gunk, you may be using too much compound. Â*It usually doesn't take much. Â*I have strops that go for months without adding any new compound. Â*When you scrape it off, try using less of it when you re-apply it. Check out this URL to the Cape Forge website that offers a tutorial on how to strop.

http://www.capeforge.com/contstrp/index.htm