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"Leather & Lace" Paddle Strop
"Leather & Lace" Paddle Strop
Establishing and keeping a fine edge on a tool is as much an art and skill as anything the tool itself may be used to create. Learning to quickly, accurately, and repeatedly create a keen edge on a knife, chisel, or plane blade has been and continues to be a fascinating endeavor, and one that I by no means consider myself a true master. However, I do feel competent enough and comfortable in my abilities to keep my edged tools maintained to a high standard, and tune them up for very high performance.
I have learned and come to appreciate that grinding and sharpening a blade to an initial keen edge is only half of the equation. The other half is maintaining that keen edge. One could take the time to haul out the sharpening stones everytime their blades need a little attention, but another very viable and very effective option is stropping. A strop is essentially a piece of soft but firm material (leather is popular) that a blade edge is "dragged" across against the edge (opposite of how you would move the blade if you were trying to cut with it) in order to straighten, realign, and sometimes polish a cutting edge.
As an edged tool is used, the fine edge will, over time, become slightly bent or moved out of alignment, and the steel may form a nearly microscopic bur at the point of the edge. These phenomenons will naturally negativly affect the tool's effectiveness, and contribute to a blade being "dull". Stropping a blade will help realign the edge, and knock off any very tiny bur to help the tool perform more efficiently. Similarly, stropping a blade with a strop infused with a micro abrasive honing compound like chromium oxide will help put a mirror polish on a well-honed blade, and contribute to even better performance than honing with stones alone. If a blade has been chipped, dropped, or very heavily used however, so that the edge is visibly missing material or particularly dull, then the edge will need to be actually re-ground and sharpened again to restore it; stropping (after initial honing) is more up keep than establishing a new edge.
I like to quickly strop my knives and chisels right before use on particularly delicate or precise applications, and any time I can feel them losing their bite. I have come to appreciate a paddle strop, which is one in which the leather or stropping medium is fixed to a rigid surface. I find this style of strop gives good control, and there is less risk than on a hanging flexible leather strap strop that the blade may press the leather up around it, serving to wreak havoc on a nice edge.
I designed this paddle strop to have a very large and wide surface area, which is particularly useful for wider blades like a plane iron that can have the entire edge in contact with the strop surface at once, and have a long area that they can be stropped across. The handle shape was inspired by a paddle strop in the Classic Violins shop, and by an antique strop I have pictures of. I chose to make the paddle out of lacewood, which is a dense hardwood with a particularly striking figure. Although most of the wood's surface is covered by the leather pads for the strops, the handle would still be visible, and I do like an attractive tool. The leather is a thick (about 3mm) piece with a slightly porous but very smooth surface.
The finished strop is very heavy, feels very stable, and works nicely. Paddle strops are not particularly difficult to make and do not need to be fancy; simply gluing a piece of thick, dense, smooth leather to any hard and flat surface will make a usable strop. I highly recommend stropping as a final step to your sharpening/honing routine, or as regular maintenance for your edged tools. If you have not already been doing so, then chances are that like me, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.
Establishing and keeping a fine edge on a tool is as much an art and skill as anything the tool itself may be used to create. Learning to quickly, accurately, and repeatedly create a keen edge on a knife, chisel, or plane blade has been and continues to be a fascinating endeavor, and one that I by no means consider myself a true master. However, I do feel competent enough and comfortable in my abilities to keep my edged tools maintained to a high standard, and tune them up for very high performance.
I have learned and come to appreciate that grinding and sharpening a blade to an initial keen edge is only half of the equation. The other half is maintaining that keen edge. One could take the time to haul out the sharpening stones everytime their blades need a little attention, but another very viable and very effective option is stropping. A strop is essentially a piece of soft but firm material (leather is popular) that a blade edge is "dragged" across against the edge (opposite of how you would move the blade if you were trying to cut with it) in order to straighten, realign, and sometimes polish a cutting edge.
As an edged tool is used, the fine edge will, over time, become slightly bent or moved out of alignment, and the steel may form a nearly microscopic bur at the point of the edge. These phenomenons will naturally negativly affect the tool's effectiveness, and contribute to a blade being "dull". Stropping a blade will help realign the edge, and knock off any very tiny bur to help the tool perform more efficiently. Similarly, stropping a blade with a strop infused with a micro abrasive honing compound like chromium oxide will help put a mirror polish on a well-honed blade, and contribute to even better performance than honing with stones alone. If a blade has been chipped, dropped, or very heavily used however, so that the edge is visibly missing material or particularly dull, then the edge will need to be actually re-ground and sharpened again to restore it; stropping (after initial honing) is more up keep than establishing a new edge.
I like to quickly strop my knives and chisels right before use on particularly delicate or precise applications, and any time I can feel them losing their bite. I have come to appreciate a paddle strop, which is one in which the leather or stropping medium is fixed to a rigid surface. I find this style of strop gives good control, and there is less risk than on a hanging flexible leather strap strop that the blade may press the leather up around it, serving to wreak havoc on a nice edge.
I designed this paddle strop to have a very large and wide surface area, which is particularly useful for wider blades like a plane iron that can have the entire edge in contact with the strop surface at once, and have a long area that they can be stropped across. The handle shape was inspired by a paddle strop in the Classic Violins shop, and by an antique strop I have pictures of. I chose to make the paddle out of lacewood, which is a dense hardwood with a particularly striking figure. Although most of the wood's surface is covered by the leather pads for the strops, the handle would still be visible, and I do like an attractive tool. The leather is a thick (about 3mm) piece with a slightly porous but very smooth surface.
The finished strop is very heavy, feels very stable, and works nicely. Paddle strops are not particularly difficult to make and do not need to be fancy; simply gluing a piece of thick, dense, smooth leather to any hard and flat surface will make a usable strop. I highly recommend stropping as a final step to your sharpening/honing routine, or as regular maintenance for your edged tools. If you have not already been doing so, then chances are that like me, you'll wonder how you ever did without it.
Click picture for more detail
Click picture for more detail