Was going to buy a strop on Amazon, and then I realized, you know what, this guy has helped me so much, I wanna support him. Looking forward to it arriving
Every time I watch channels like yours I learn. I have made strop with dowel to do inside my spoon knives but never thought of just a simple sheet of leather as a carving gouge strop; doh! So simple yet effective. thanks
I have been using an old belt and buffing compound for boats. It works well enough that I went and got a piece of leather wide enough for my planes and the compound available at Lee Valley. Stepping up the game! Thanks for all the info James.
@@MrNikke96 nonpolymerising oil. Basically anything thats not tung or linseed. Oh and make sure its not something that goes rancid (most kitchen oils and animal fats). I like light engineering oil types for almost everything. Breakfree CLP is awesome but slightly pricy. Nice for light resto work too, take a 0000 steel wool, CLP, and a bit of elbow grease and marvel at the result.
thanks. that is how I like to do it. most of the how to videos are now on the second channel, but every Thursday I do an explanation video like that on there.
Great explanation James, thanks. I found an antique barber's razor strop that had two flaps. I glued one to each side of a board and use that for all my stropping. Works pretty well.
I know it's a long term investment, but I just bought approx one sq ft of cow hide to line my new work vice. It cost me $20 so I guess it pays to shop.. I have had a 'Wet wheel', for a couple of years that I use predominantly for lathe tools (I use stones for chisels). They supplied a tube of Auto Chrome polish which does the job... So many ways to do the same thing. Thanks James
As always, another good video. I have found that a simple piece of MDF without leather that has been charged with compound makes an excellent strop. Many woodworkers already have some laying around the shop, it is cheap, and can even be carved for special stropping applications.
30yrs of using buffing rouge, polishing compound, rouge &, paste, cutting grit and blending compound and paste... I DON'T miss the mess, especially with some of the bright colours and stringy stuff. Blah. Got everywhere and some stained. Had more wheels marked for that than any other wheels combined together. Now a days it's what ever the story has that I'm at at the time normally k pick grey and Gunna get some Blu next depending on grinders. But when I get a stop I will use blk or gry. Good show this morning too, BTW. I still think you should make me a birdcage from some of that live oak.
hey James thanks for sharing I've always wondered what the difference was why some people used the smooth and some people use the Rough Side now I know it's a matter of preference thanks buddy!
Nice video! A tip I like is to clean the strop with pink pencil eraser, and then reapply more compound. I sharpen knives so it might not be needed with chisels.
Great video, I would rather work with a not so sharp tool that has been polished on a strop than w one that has never been stropped.the cut is noticably smoother. Will have to try horse butt as I have rounded a freshly honed edge. Was nice meeting you at MWTC.
i used high grit stones until i saw you strop, now my strops never more than a arms length away, i feel it give a better edge than the high grit stones anyway and takes a 5th of the time
Mr. Wright, the links in the video description to the buffing compound are reversed. Zinc oxide should point to a gray/black bar, chromium oxide should point to a green one. My favorite compound is the Flexcut Gold (yellow bar) which is a titanium oxide and aluminum oxide blend. Thanks for the video!
So how are barber shop style strips used and what can you strop on it? What style of strop do you use in the field (outdoors) or at work (like construction sites, other work sites)?
Razor stops are the same thing it's just they are longer and thinner. They come in all different hardnesses which will allow you a different rounding on the edge of the razor. You can do razors on a flat strap like this. Just as you could do chisels on a razor strap. What people use in the field depends more on what they like. There are hundreds of different types of strops. And they all work it just depends on what you prefer.
Good info ... I have the giant green crayon for my strop, I expect that my great grand children will likely inherit that before it's all used up. BTW. ordered some 7/9oz horse but from Zach White just this morning.
Would it be better to get expensive whetstones or expensive diamondstones. I don't care about getting messy I just want the best results without replacing them.
Generally I think that your video’s are awesome and I look to you for guidance, today...... not so much. Each compound is a different grit and there is a difference. Harbour freight is very low grade, and the black compound is coarse. Lee Valley Green is very good quality and is (as I understand) 10000 grit; does a great job. If you are going to take the time to put out a video, I would rather it be accurate rather than a “ give it a try and see what you like”. I’m not throwing mud here, and as I said to start, I like your videos. This one however was very “Harbour Freight” in quality.
Thanks for your openings. That means a lot. I do like these comments. But the reason why I stated it that way was that for the average wood woodworker they would not be able to tell a difference. As they get better in the work they will want better things that is just natural.
sounds like the leather is wrapping up around the tip. pushing too hard on soft leather or letting the handle lift at the end of the stroke can cause that.
Could your angle be too high? I have a buddy who goes straight from a white grind stone to a cloth buffing wheel, and he gets good results. I am not sure what the compound he uses is. It's a sort of amber colour and he has a huge stick of it. In my experience, I like to get down to at least a 1200 diamond stone, and I sometimes wonder if you can over do stropping. The blades still cut paper and shave hairs off your arm, but they seem to lose the feeling of sharpness. I get best results going right to an 8000 grit diamond stone, and doing limited stropping on a hard leather wheel with green or grey compound. It still isn't ideal as my wheel is 6" diameter and turns at 1430rpm which I feel is too fast. Perhaps the bottom line is that if your edges are sharp enough to shave hairs, then they are going to do the job.
They both do the same thing a buffing wheel is just a little bit faster if you haven't set up. But if you don't have a buffing wheel set up it's faster just to use a strap.
I'm one of those "I got a 12k grit Waterstone ";) bit always wanted to try a strip but can't find a store that sells scrap or pieces I can use for a strop.someone sd a leather belt would work?? Never tried so idk what r ur thoughts on that and where do u order the horse butt from? O want me a piece of horse butt..lol (serious though)haha
Any leather will work. Belt, old shoe, MDF, Pine endgrain, cork. It does not matter. I have a link to some horse butt in the description. I got my big pece from sum supplier I just searched for it on Google shopping.
Sure. Just about anything that will hold it with a decent surface will work fine. You can even do it with cardboard or MDF. They'll just wear out a lot faster and may not be as nice for the long term.
You mention zinc oxide. Are you sure you didn't mean something else? Zinc oxide is listed at only 4 on the mohs scale, suggesting it would be completely useless for polishing steel. I appreciate that your point is that any of the polishing materials should do on the strop. Green chromium oxide at 8-8.5 on the Mohs scale, is just a bit harder than most steel. Aluminum oxide and silicon carbide are harder at 9, so can better sharpen some harder steels. Diamond at 10 can sharpen about anything. 4 is soft. Abrasion may not be needed, as a strop can be useful without polishing compound, but ZnO should not help.
good talk. 1 question (kind of irrelevant) - do u get the bevels mirror like on the stones? i recently was re-doing a chisel and all the way 2 8K grit i couldn't get the bevel polished-looking :( I admit I'm a newbie and mayb i'm really doing something wrong. i can only say that after stropping the secondary bevel the chisel is relatively sharp and cuts thru the paper (as a test b4 i take it 2 the wood) w/o much effort :)
No. Diamond s cut differently than wet stones. So you don't actually get a mirror polish on the diamond stone. Usually a couple strokes on a strap will give you that if you want it.
@@WoodByWright i'm sorry i might have confused u (totally saw your 'diamonds' and forgot 2 mention the difference). Because I actually use whetstones... :) Yet i can't get polish-looking bevel even on 8K. What really confuses me... The 400-grit kind of polishes the bevel but doesn't take off much metal. While 1K, 3K, 8K take off metal and immediately make the bevel matte. I dunno if something is wrong w/my stones.
Great Video! I've been looking at how to get my chisels nice and sharp. Bit of an irrelevant question to the video though - I'm using an oil sharpening stone and it's getting quite dark (not sure if I over-oiled or because of the metal filings it's getting clogged up??). It's a new stone so I've hardly used it at all, am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
What stones don't exactly get clogged up because they work with the slurry on top not actually cutting like a diamond plate or sandpaper. However usually any problem with that would be fixed when you flatten the stone. it needs to be done quite regularly otherwise you'll end up getting a dish where you use it most often.
I have done a little research some time ago about it, and I'm going to buy it in the next days. Is this horse butt leather called "shell cordovan" in the leather making jargon?
For shoes, cordovan is super expensive, high quality leather. I don't know if what you saw is the same, but that may be too high quality and expensive for this purpose.
Man i ordered a stop and i came w green and pink coumpound, do not know what particle size but its so hard i cannot apply it evenly, isnt there like wax in the compound, i want to heat it to so it can smear evenly, is that a good idea?
Hey James, very informative vid as usual. On another subject: is your day job a theoretical physicist? Or is your twin brother a physicist? I ask because our Science Channel has a program called How the Universe Works. You or your twin appear regularly on it. If you want to keep this a secret I understand. Bob
Nice James. As you say (several times) the right method/leather etc is the one that works for you. Crimson Guitars did a comparison/test of different leathers and compounds (th-cam.com/video/xkMvo1ZHIO4/w-d-xo.html) a while ago which pretty much agreed with you ( he took over 40 mins) but I have to say yours is easier to follow.
I feel like Paul Sellers really is the almighty god when it comes to hand tool woodworking. A lot of the other youtubers refer to him regularly. I guess that's what 50 years of woodworking makes
. Any kind of leather works. A lot of people just use MDF or even paper bags. You just need something that can hold the paste. some things work a little better than others but most everything that holds the buffing compound will work.
There is absolutely nothing that on this video that is professional. From the very poor technique to the false info on compounds and there uses. Unfortunately, some will actually take this info as the gospel. TOO BAD!
Was going to buy a strop on Amazon, and then I realized, you know what, this guy has helped me so much, I wanna support him. Looking forward to it arriving
Thanks man. That means a lot! We will keep the content coming.
Every time I watch channels like yours I learn. I have made strop with dowel to do inside my spoon knives but never thought of just a simple sheet of leather as a carving gouge strop; doh! So simple yet effective.
thanks
Thanks man. I do love the simpal answers.
I inherited my late dad's tools. And had no idea how to sharpen them. Thank you. I'll be trying this and seeing if i can learn to use them now too
I have been using an old belt and buffing compound for boats. It works well enough that I went and got a piece of leather wide enough for my planes and the compound available at Lee Valley. Stepping up the game! Thanks for all the info James.
sweet Jim. yup a lot of people like to complicate it and make it more then it should be.
The Green compound from Lee Valley is too course. Good for lawn mower blades though!
Great video! I have new and antique carving tools and some have never touched a stone. Stropping frequently keeps them cutting perfectly.
I've personally used a old belt (with some oil) screwed to a plank without any problems on chisels :P People overthink this kinda stuff.
so true it does not take much at all!
yo! what is this "some oil" you used ? im thinking of doing the same but i have no idea what to do with the belt
@@MrNikke96 nonpolymerising oil. Basically anything thats not tung or linseed. Oh and make sure its not something that goes rancid (most kitchen oils and animal fats). I like light engineering oil types for almost everything. Breakfree CLP is awesome but slightly pricy. Nice for light resto work too, take a 0000 steel wool, CLP, and a bit of elbow grease and marvel at the result.
I really enjoy a to-the-point plain-spoken explanation like this.
thanks. that is how I like to do it. most of the how to videos are now on the second channel, but every Thursday I do an explanation video like that on there.
Great explanation James, thanks. I found an antique barber's razor strop that had two flaps. I glued one to each side of a board and use that for all my stropping. Works pretty well.
nice! got to love those old knife strops!
I know it's a long term investment, but I just bought approx one sq ft of cow hide to line my new work vice. It cost me $20 so I guess it pays to shop.. I have had a 'Wet wheel', for a couple of years that I use predominantly for lathe tools (I use stones for chisels). They supplied a tube of Auto Chrome polish which does the job... So many ways to do the same thing. Thanks James
So true man. Got to love trying new ways.
As always, another good video. I have found that a simple piece of MDF without leather that has been charged with compound makes an excellent strop. Many woodworkers already have some laying around the shop, it is cheap, and can even be carved for special stropping applications.
Verry true. also corck, or pine end grain do good work too. some people just like to over think it. LOL
30yrs of using buffing rouge, polishing compound, rouge &, paste, cutting grit and blending compound and paste... I DON'T miss the mess, especially with some of the bright colours and stringy stuff. Blah. Got everywhere and some stained. Had more wheels marked for that than any other wheels combined together. Now a days it's what ever the story has that I'm at at the time normally k pick grey and Gunna get some Blu next depending on grinders. But when I get a stop I will use blk or gry. Good show this morning too, BTW. I still think you should make me a birdcage from some of that live oak.
Lol sounds like a fun time. Thanks man.
That was a stropping good video, with a sharp ending 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Lol thanks man.
Oh strop it!
Another great no nonsense vid James. Enjoy these immensely. Once a strop becomes part of your routine you'll wonder how you did without it !
Thanks Dana. I like doing these every now and then.
I agree, from experience, with EVERYTHING you say about stropping! I thank you for sharing good advise with all of us in your videos.
My pleasure.
hey James thanks for sharing I've always wondered what the difference was why some people used the smooth and some people use the Rough Side now I know it's a matter of preference thanks buddy!
My pleasure Opa.
Nice video! A tip I like is to clean the strop with pink pencil eraser, and then reapply more compound. I sharpen knives so it might not be needed with chisels.
That works great. I generally use a card scraper to clean mine. There's a bunch of good ways of doing it. It's always fun to learn of new ones.
@@WoodByWright Yeah, that is a good way too! I use a metal ruler instead of a card scraper, but the idea is the same!
Great video, I would rather work with a not so sharp tool that has been polished on a strop than w one that has never been stropped.the cut is noticably smoother. Will have to try horse butt as I have rounded a freshly honed edge. Was nice meeting you at MWTC.
So true. Thanks man.
I use a piece of m d f with chromium oxide green and on other side auto Sol metal polish works as good as a leather strap try it on a scrap of it.
So true. I have also used pine endgran and some use cork. Got to live how simple it is.
i used high grit stones until i saw you strop, now my strops never more than a arms length away, i feel it give a better edge than the high grit stones anyway and takes a 5th of the time
So true. So easy and fun.
Thank you very much, your video ended up answering more questions than you can imagine, helped me a lot indeed. May you have a great day!
thanks! glad I could help!
Me: who the heck is going to watch and 8 minute video on stropping?
Also me: Me
Hi there from Portugal,
Like the "Barber's" many years ago :D
Obrigado(Thanks)
Mr. Wright, the links in the video description to the buffing compound are reversed. Zinc oxide should point to a gray/black bar, chromium oxide should point to a green one. My favorite compound is the Flexcut Gold (yellow bar) which is a titanium oxide and aluminum oxide blend. Thanks for the video!
oops you are right I flipped them thanks!
thank you
my pleasure
So how are barber shop style strips used and what can you strop on it? What style of strop do you use in the field (outdoors) or at work (like construction sites, other work sites)?
Razor stops are the same thing it's just they are longer and thinner. They come in all different hardnesses which will allow you a different rounding on the edge of the razor. You can do razors on a flat strap like this. Just as you could do chisels on a razor strap. What people use in the field depends more on what they like. There are hundreds of different types of strops. And they all work it just depends on what you prefer.
Thank you. Very clear instruction!
Thank you so much for this. It really helped me a ton!
thanks! glad I could help!
Rock out with your strop out!
600 grit is also enough...plenty of furniture from the 1600’s in the castles around here to prove it.
Wow, this was really great information. Thank you!!
Thanks man. My pleasure.
Subscribed! This was very helpful.
thanks. I will keep them coming!
nice clear and well demonstrated video thankyou.
Good info ... I have the giant green crayon for my strop, I expect that my great grand children will likely inherit that before it's all used up. BTW. ordered some 7/9oz horse but from Zach White just this morning.
nice man. dont have too much fun with that butt!
Would it be better to get expensive whetstones or expensive diamondstones. I don't care about getting messy I just want the best results without replacing them.
Depends on your personality the feeling of a ultra high grit wet stone, but it is more work. Dimond plates are just so fast and simple and portable.
Generally I think that your video’s are awesome and I look to you for guidance, today...... not so much. Each compound is a different grit and there is a difference. Harbour freight is very low grade, and the black compound is coarse. Lee Valley Green is very good quality and is (as I understand) 10000 grit; does a great job. If you are going to take the time to put out a video, I would rather it be accurate rather than a “ give it a try and see what you like”. I’m not throwing mud here, and as I said to start, I like your videos. This one however was very “Harbour Freight” in quality.
Thanks for your openings. That means a lot. I do like these comments. But the reason why I stated it that way was that for the average wood woodworker they would not be able to tell a difference. As they get better in the work they will want better things that is just natural.
I always dull my chisels when I use my strop. It's very frustrating. Perhaps my technique needs some honing.
sounds like the leather is wrapping up around the tip. pushing too hard on soft leather or letting the handle lift at the end of the stroke can cause that.
Could your angle be too high? I have a buddy who goes straight from a white grind stone to a cloth buffing wheel, and he gets good results. I am not sure what the compound he uses is. It's a sort of amber colour and he has a huge stick of it. In my experience, I like to get down to at least a 1200 diamond stone, and I sometimes wonder if you can over do stropping. The blades still cut paper and shave hairs off your arm, but they seem to lose the feeling of sharpness. I get best results going right to an 8000 grit diamond stone, and doing limited stropping on a hard leather wheel with green or grey compound. It still isn't ideal as my wheel is 6" diameter and turns at 1430rpm which I feel is too fast. Perhaps the bottom line is that if your edges are sharp enough to shave hairs, then they are going to do the job.
Just got a strop. If I use a corser compound, will it come off by the time I get to the finer compounds? Shall I just stick with the finest compound?
No it will last for many sharpenings. I normally stick with green chrome oxide.
@@WoodByWright what side of the strop should I be using when? Does compound need to go on both sides?
very enlightening!
Thanks!
Is a strop better than using a buffing wheel, or is it best to buff and then strop, or even the reverse.
Great video as always.
They both do the same thing a buffing wheel is just a little bit faster if you haven't set up. But if you don't have a buffing wheel set up it's faster just to use a strap.
Thanks for that. I have both. My route at the moment is buff then strop. It seems to work.
I'm one of those "I got a 12k grit Waterstone ";) bit always wanted to try a strip but can't find a store that sells scrap or pieces I can use for a strop.someone sd a leather belt would work?? Never tried so idk what r ur thoughts on that and where do u order the horse butt from? O want me a piece of horse butt..lol (serious though)haha
Any leather will work. Belt, old shoe, MDF, Pine endgrain, cork. It does not matter. I have a link to some horse butt in the description. I got my big pece from sum supplier I just searched for it on Google shopping.
Wood By Wright No kidding I did not know that you could use cork,MDF, and other stuff like that I'm gonna have to look in the description thanks bro
Huge fan here! Are there any vegan options? For someone who doesn't want to use a leather for this? Thanks in advance :)
Sure. Just about anything that will hold it with a decent surface will work fine. You can even do it with cardboard or MDF. They'll just wear out a lot faster and may not be as nice for the long term.
Thank you!
You mention zinc oxide. Are you sure you didn't mean something else?
Zinc oxide is listed at only 4 on the mohs scale, suggesting it would be completely useless for polishing steel. I appreciate that your point is that any of the polishing materials should do on the strop. Green chromium oxide at 8-8.5 on the Mohs scale, is just a bit harder than most steel. Aluminum oxide and silicon carbide are harder at 9, so can better sharpen some harder steels. Diamond at 10 can sharpen about anything.
4 is soft. Abrasion may not be needed, as a strop can be useful without polishing compound, but ZnO should not help.
Interesting because what I use is zinc oxide. And o can tell a big difference between raw leather and the compound.
Awww, Horse-butt!
Ya Man!
good talk. 1 question (kind of irrelevant) - do u get the bevels mirror like on the stones? i recently was re-doing a chisel and all the way 2 8K grit i couldn't get the bevel polished-looking :( I admit I'm a newbie and mayb i'm really doing something wrong. i can only say that after stropping the secondary bevel the chisel is relatively sharp and cuts thru the paper (as a test b4 i take it 2 the wood) w/o much effort :)
No. Diamond s cut differently than wet stones. So you don't actually get a mirror polish on the diamond stone. Usually a couple strokes on a strap will give you that if you want it.
@@WoodByWright i'm sorry i might have confused u (totally saw your 'diamonds' and forgot 2 mention the difference). Because I actually use whetstones... :) Yet i can't get polish-looking bevel even on 8K. What really confuses me... The 400-grit kind of polishes the bevel but doesn't take off much metal. While 1K, 3K, 8K take off metal and immediately make the bevel matte. I dunno if something is wrong w/my stones.
Great Video! I've been looking at how to get my chisels nice and sharp. Bit of an irrelevant question to the video though - I'm using an oil sharpening stone and it's getting quite dark (not sure if I over-oiled or because of the metal filings it's getting clogged up??). It's a new stone so I've hardly used it at all, am I doing something wrong? Thanks!
What stones don't exactly get clogged up because they work with the slurry on top not actually cutting like a diamond plate or sandpaper. However usually any problem with that would be fixed when you flatten the stone. it needs to be done quite regularly otherwise you'll end up getting a dish where you use it most often.
I have done a little research some time ago about it, and I'm going to buy it in the next days. Is this horse butt leather called "shell cordovan" in the leather making jargon?
I have never heard that term, but I am not too deeply into the leather world. I usually find it listed as Horse butt.
For shoes, cordovan is super expensive, high quality leather. I don't know if what you saw is the same, but that may be too high quality and expensive for this purpose.
Great video. Thanks James...rr
thanks again Richard!
Great video. How do you like the honing plate from Wortheffort? It went so fast I wasn't able to get one.
I love it. and use it a lot when carving.
For real!
Man i ordered a stop and i came w green and pink coumpound, do not know what particle size but its so hard i cannot apply it evenly, isnt there like wax in the compound, i want to heat it to so it can smear evenly, is that a good idea?
It depends on how it was made. But is sounds like yours is really hard! The stuff I make is made with bees wax.
@@WoodByWright ok, do you think I could microwave ot and not ruin my microwave
i wonder how many people missed the mc hammer joke. as stupid as that was it was gold.
Buffier shine! 😂🤣😂
Oh ya!
Hey James, very informative vid as usual. On another subject: is your day job a theoretical physicist? Or is your twin brother a physicist? I ask because our Science Channel has a program called How the Universe Works. You or your twin appear regularly on it. If you want to keep this a secret I understand. Bob
Lol I will have to check it out. That is a fun hoby so stay some what informed in the field.
Lucky Hiker How funny! He does kinda look like James!!!! 😁😂🤣😂 Nope, no twin! I promise!
are you wearing your parachute pants?
LOL nice. I should get a pair!
can I use enkay emery compound?
I don't know what that is, but sounds like it.
@@WoodByWright It's an abrasive compound, kinda chalky any suggestion how to suspend the compound to the leather?
iStrop
LOL yup
Video idea: make a wooden comb
I will have to add that to the list. It would be a fun too. I have no use for. Lol
You could comb your whiskers.
Nice James. As you say (several times) the right method/leather etc is the one that works for you. Crimson Guitars did a comparison/test of different leathers and compounds (th-cam.com/video/xkMvo1ZHIO4/w-d-xo.html) a while ago which pretty much agreed with you ( he took over 40 mins) but I have to say yours is easier to follow.
thanks Dave.yup that is a good comparison.
I feel like Paul Sellers really is the almighty god when it comes to hand tool woodworking. A lot of the other youtubers refer to him regularly. I guess that's what 50 years of woodworking makes
Can you just use a leather belt?
. Any kind of leather works. A lot of people just use MDF or even paper bags. You just need something that can hold the paste. some things work a little better than others but most everything that holds the buffing compound will work.
Thank you!
What is MDF?
it is a fiber board. www.homedepot.com/p/MDF-Panel-Common-1-2-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-Actual-1-2-in-x-49-in-x-97-in-M31240849097000000A/202332602
Wood By Wright thank you!
4:41 i feel like you put too much pressure, no?
Not for horse butt leather. If you use a softer substrate like most cow leathers then you need to use a bit less pressure but not too much less.
jesus... with the way your hands shake, i'm surprised you still have any digits left to woodwork with!
Thank you. I like to say that if I can do carving anyone can! You don't need stedy hands to do woodworking.
@@WoodByWright lol amen brotha
you do not have
no hair
no mind
There is absolutely nothing that on this video that is professional. From the very poor technique to the false info on compounds and there uses. Unfortunately, some will actually take this info as the gospel. TOO BAD!