Using the rough side of leather strops
I would like to know if people use the rough - split - side rather than the smooth - grain - side when stropping. I experienced the rough one, charged with Cr2O3, to be a great deburrer. In case of emergency sharpening on just a Chosera 800 followed by stropping on the rough leather gave an excellent and durable result. Any thoughts?
The usual practice is to use the smooth side for stropping.
Stropping is normally carried out after honing the cutting edge on a fine grit waterstone eg about 8000 or higher.
Using the rough side of the leather, there is a problem that the little strands of leather will curl up and over the edge, destroying that lovely sharp edge you got on your 10000 stone.
My preference is for the smooth side. The rough side may retain more compound, but IMO that isn't really necessary.
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Ken
Ken's Corner
Nubatama Stones
Precise Sharpening Blog
"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of Science, whatever the matter may be." Baron William Thomson Kelvin 1883
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