Most people see the word strop and ask the same question: what the heck is a strop? Stropping is a long-lost part of the blade sharpener’s art. It is still as important a procedure as ever, but fewer people sharpen their blades these days. It makes the strop seem like a trivia question until you know its secrets.
Best Leather For Strop on the market
You know who you are, skip down to the reviews below while I educate the next generation of strop enthusiasts. I know you will find some in-depth info to help you grab the best leather strop kit that’s right for you.
1. Finew Professional Whetstone Sharpening Stone Set – Best Whetstone Sharpening System with free-style Strop Included
Materials Leather Strop For Razor
Finew puts out a decent-quality, whetstone-sharpening system that happens to have a strop included. The strop is freestyle, meaning that it is like a belt with a clip at one end to secure around a solid hook and an extra contoured area at the other end, just like a barber’s strop. It is made of real cow leather but not the highest quality. It is not the star of the show.
On the other hand, the two included whetstones have a grit range from 400 to 8000, which is enough to take any blade from deadly dull to very sharp. The aluminum oxide stones stack nicely on each other in an attractive, non-slip, bamboo base that is ready to display in your kitchen.
The stones have silicon shoes that slip onto them, creating a snug fit with the base. A small flattening stone is also included to re-level the whetstone surfaces after wear-and-tear. The set arrives securely packaged, so there should be no issues with broken stones.
Performance:
This set will get the job done in most cases. Although it is obviously designed with the kitchen in mind, these little stones could be useful on small wood chisels and other non-kitchen blades. The dimensions are 7 x 2.25 inches, so they could be a little time-consuming with a larger project.
An important additional feature is the angle guide that keeps your blade at a consistent 15-degree angle while sharpening. Although these angle guides have issues across brands, they are helpful in giving the feel of the proper angle to hold a blade until you can do it on your own.
This is recommended for beginners that have gotten the sharpening bug. Everything you need to turn a drawer full of junk back into knives is here. Be warned: you will seek upgrades as you gain experience.
Pros:
- Great sharpening starter kit
- Four grit densities
- Non-slip base
- Attractive set
- Angle Guide
- Moderate Price
Cons:
- Not a very useful strop for beginners
- No consolidating case for storage or portability
- No instructions
- Mid-level materials
2. Razorri Solido S2 – Best Bargain Whetstone Sharpening System with Free-Style Strop Included
Leather Strop For Chisel Sharpening
Performance:
This kit is basically the same as the Finew offering but a few bucks cheaper. It is a whetstone sharpening system with a strop that seems like an afterthought.
It includes the same size 400 to 8000 grit density in two stones, also aluminum oxide. This is the real value of the kit.
It has a flattening stone to level your whetstones after much use. It also includes the angle guide. The added value is that there is an instructional video available online. That’s very important when you’re starting out.
Technical Issues:
There have been complaints that the grit densities have been misprinted on the stones. Customer Service seems to respond quickly and will replace misprinted stones.
I recommend this product to beginners as well. It is very similar to the Finew product, but it will cost you $20 less. As I explained up top, the sharpening process is multi-leveled. This will give you everything you need to go further down the rabbit hole, cheaply, and make more discerning choices according to your needs, further down the road. There’s no better teacher than experience and this is a way to get it without breaking the bank.
Pros:
- great sharpening starter kit
- four grit densities
- non-slip base
- Attractive set
- Angle guide
- Instructional video
Cons:
- Not a very useful strop for beginners
- No consolidating case for storage or portability
- Mid-level materials
3. Sharp Pebble Complete Sharpening Stone Set – Best All-Around Sharpening System with Block-Mounted Strop
Overall:
This is my favorite choice for neophytes. Finally, we have a strop that is meant for serious use coupled with a whetstone that will bring your blade to the stropping stage. If you really want to dig into the self-sharpening lifestyle, this is the all-in-one compromise for you.
This package has only one whetstone with two grit densities: 1000 and 6000. These two grits are perfect for most common household knives. You won’t be able to bring a damaged blade back from the dead with this stone, but the trade-off is worth it.
Leather Strop For Kitchen
Performance:
This kit has several advantages for someone just starting. The stone has a larger surface area, which makes initial sharpening and honing go more quickly. The angle guide is included. It’s not the greatest but, again, I consider it a learning tool on your way to mastering the art.
The best part is a block-mounted strop with a polishing compound. This strop is stable with a non-slip, bamboo base. It is a generous 8×3 inches which beats the freestyle strop by a mile. Freestyle requires you to hold the strop steady, like a barber, while you pass your blade over it. That’s only good for a straight razor unless you really know your way around a strop.
The Sharp Pebble strop sits on the counter with a non-stick base, allowing you to make safe, effective passes with the blade. The 7-micron polishing compound makes this a true strop, adding fine, additional abrasion which makes for a mirror finish on your blade edge. That’s what stropping is all about.
I highly recommend this kit for all those that have recently begun to get into sharpening their own blades but have nothing to do it with. This system has everything it takes to accomplish all three stages of the sharpening process at an affordable price.
Pros:
- Mounted, leather strop
- Polishing compound
- Non-slip bamboo base
- Perfect whetstone grits for most uses
- Angle guide
- Printed instructions and eBook
Cons:
- Strop is one-sided. Grain side only
- No flattening stone
- Reports of stone separating between grits
4. BeaverCraft LSC4P1 Leather Stropping Block Kit – Cheap Starter Strop
This will be a quick review.
Performance:
The BeaverCraft product is a one-sided strop mounted on a sturdy wooden frame, rather than bamboo. That is its only distinction.
The grain-side leather that tops the frame has had numerous complaints in reviews. It has been suspected of being everything from faux to re-pressed leather. It comes pre-loaded with their stropping compound, but that seems to be one of their biggest complaints.
Although they include a stick of stropping compound, they pre-load all of their strops at the factory. The end result has been a lot of people getting old, dried-up compound on the strop that peels up in flakes as people try to use it.
Inexpensive Leather Strop
Overall:
Even though it is an ample, mounted strop at 8.6 x 2.5 inches, this problem has been too across the board to ignore. BeaverCraft is a good company with great customer service. they have responded to customers quickly and gone so far as to re-send this product without the compound pre-loaded. However, with the issues about the leather, I think they may have tried to offer a product that cut too many corners for affordability.
I do not recommend this product because I think the company is on its way to an improved offering.
Pros:
- Great company
- Sturdy wooden frame for the strop
- Includes polishing compound
Cons:
- 1-sided strop
- Pre-loaded compound cakes with age
- No instructions
5. Green Elephant Leather Strop with Stropping Compound – Higher Quality, True Strop with Compound
Green Elephant provides the absolute best strop on this list. The price reflects all the focus they have put into this third stage of blade refinement, with no thought to sharpening or honing questions. This is made for true strop enthusiasts. If you’ve been sharpening your own blades for a while and you are in the market for a really good strop, this may be it.
High degree of sharpening
Materials:
This double-sided strop is made of vegetable-tanned cowhide and comes with a .5-1 micron, water-soluble, diamond strop compound. The base is a pine-wood paddle with a contoured grip that makes this strop easy to use with all your blades.
The suede side is perfect for heavier tools and blades that require a more pliant surface to create a more durable edge and the 11.4 x 2.4-inch dimensions of the stropping surface give plenty of room to work.
The Green Elephant Leather Strop also comes with a heavy cardboard carrying case.
Best Leather For Strop – Buyers Guide:
So, you can see that strops are part of a larger picture that includes both sharpening and honing your blades. Finew and Razorri are two, relatively similar choices to get started from scratch.
These two products will get you up and running with the notion of sharpening in general. Their combination of whetstones is where it all begins because stropping is really the last stage of a more complex process.
The included strops, however, are not ideal unless you plan on working with a straight razor. Free-style strops look cool, but they have limited use unless you master them.
Sharp Pebble’s system is the best way to prep for serious sharpening, including a block-mounted strop with the sturdiness to do its job of getting a razor-sharp, shiny edge even for a beginner. Despite limited grit densities and a single-sided strop, this little kit will handle most sharpening jobs in the average household.
Can I use a leather belt as a strop?
Modern knife manufacturers have already provided the best angle of sharpening the knife, and it does not make sense to redo it. We do not recommend re-sharpening knives at different angles without necessity. Feelings when cutting will be worse than from the moment of purchase. You’re just grinding away expensive metal
BeaverCraft and Green Elephant are the two contenders in the strop-only category. As I mentioned, I think BeaverCraft may have cut too many corners to create an inexpensive strop. But I think that there will be a new, improved product out from them soon.
I cannot emphasize enough that the Green Elephant strop is the only choice. If you are serious about stropping, this stand-alone product is an excellent choice because of its double-sided, sturdy, pine paddle and .5-1-micron, water-based strop compound. This is a serious strop that would complement the Finew and Razzori whetstones perfectly. If you have the budget, that would make the perfect sharpening system.
Do I need a leather strop?
I hope this guide has shed some light on the arcane mystery of strops in their many forms. In a world of cheap, throw-away blades and disposable products in general, the strop is an old-school hack to buy high-quality knives and keep them in better-than-factory condition forever.
Leather for a Strop is a great way to correct unevenness of the cutting blade and strengthen it. You are presented with different work surfaces that are suitable for knives of different lengths. The surface itself is made of very smooth high-quality leather.
The blade of the knife creates a very thin cutting edge (even thinner than the foil) and is leveled, the geometry is enhanced. This procedure should be performed regularly, or when the knife is actively used with hard surfaces. This adjustment of the knife takes only a couple of seconds, and you can easily do it before using the blade.
FAQ – How To Sharpen A Knife with Leather Strop
Using Leather strop is a separate type of sharpening or is it just a finishing of the main sharpening?
- you can use Leather Strop as the main sharpening method and it is the most effective in any condition of your knives
What is the advantage of the leather sharpening method compared to the usual ones?
- The knife will serve you many times longer, because you do not grind it with a bar. The knife is saved in the form in which you bought it
How to sharpen a knife with leather correctly and not spoil the knife?
- The main rule is to hold the leather not in the direction of the blade, but away from it. (otherwise, you’ll just cut off the leather). smooth movements with both sides of the blade. At first, you will think that it does not work, but the process takes longer than usual. 5 – 10 min. For an instant check of the knife, prepare ordinary paper, and check on it
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