How to Use a Strop to Create Scary Sharp Knives

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We all know the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I like to sharpen my knives to slow things down a bit. It’s cathartic for me and I thoroughly enjoy the process. As I gather and set up my sharpeners, I can already feel the troubles of the world melt away. Once it’s all set up, I sit at my work table. At that moment, my sole purpose is to create the sharpest knives the world has ever seen. If you’ve never used a leather strop or it’s sitting in the junk drawer of forgotten treasures, it’s time for you to join me in the wonderful world of knife stropping. I’m going to show you how to use a strop to create scary sharp knives.

Why a leather strop?

The short answer is that using a strop is quick, easy to set up, and hard to mess up. Even when I’m using the fantastic WorkSharp Precision Adjust Knife Sharpener, I give my blades a few passes on the strop to finish it off. If you’re maintaining your knives on the regular, that’s all it takes, a few passes.

As my knife collection grows, I’m able to test more and more modern super steels. These super steels have excellent edge retention and don’t normally warrant a full-blown sharpening session. This is true even after rigorous outdoor use, such is the case with the Elmax on the Giant Mouse ACE Grand. If I routinely spend 5-10 minutes stropping the Grand or any knife, I may never need to bust out the sharpening stones. That’s the magic of using a leather strop.

Look, I’m not talking about reprofiling a blade or a blade so dull that you’d have to muscle it through room temperature butter. While you could use a strop for those situations, the sharpening stones would be the way to go. I’m talking about adequately sharp knives and taking those to next level sharpness.

How to Use a Strop: Tools and Materials

Beaver Craft Leather Paddle Strop

Obviously, you need a leather strop. Knowing I would write this “how-to”, I went on Amazon and bought myself a fresh and clean strop. The Beaver Craft leather strop is made from solid ash wood with two 9” x 3” cowhide stropping surfaces. The leather is smooth and takes the stropping compound well. I prefer the paddle-style strops since it provides a handle to keep your precious fingers safely away.

Sharpal Fine Green Stropping Compound

The second item you will need is a stropping compound. They come in standard colors denoting the amount of “grit” within the compound. The most common colors are black, green, and white. Use black if you’re trying to bring back a dull blade to adequate sharpness. I have stones for that job so I don’t use the black compound. The green compound is fine grit. This is what I recommend and what typically comes with strops like the Beaver Craft. White is an ultra-fine grit that will bring your edge to a mirror finish.

My only complaint with the Beaver Craft is that it came with the wrong stropping compound. It’s supposed to come with green but instead came with white. No matter, I went ahead and clicked the “Buy It Now” on the Sharpal Fine Green Stropping Compound.

How to Use a Strop: Tutorial

Step 1: Apply Stropping Compound

Now that you have everything you need, let’s create some scary sharp knives! The first step is to load the leather with stropping compound. Not a hard step and not a step you need to do often. Just remember, a little compound goes a long way. In essence, treat the block of compound like a crayon. Tap into your two-year-old self and “color” one side of the strop until it’s evenly covered. I leave the other side of the strop free of compound. I’ll talk about why in a moment. 

Now that the compound is applied, we can begin stropping. There are 2 rules to remember:

1. Never push or pull the blade edge into the leather. Our goal is to remove microns worth of steel from the blade, not slice chunks of leather from the strop. Slicing into the leather is a quick way to ruin your strop and your edge.
2. Only the lightest pressure on the blade. You want just enough pressure to hold it against the strop. Let the weight of the blade and the strop do the work.

Step 2a: Pull Stroke

The trickiest part is finding the right angle of the edge. As you’d imagine, different knives come with different edge angles. This is where feel and experience come into play. What I recommend is to flip the strop over to the raw leather side. Then do a few test strokes to get a good feel of the edge angle and the motion of the strokes. I start with a pull stroke, where I pull the blade towards the general direction of my body.

Step 2b: Pull Stroke Rotation

As I pull the edge across the strop, I remember to rotate the blade along the curvature of the belly and end at the tip. That’s one stroke.

Step 3a: Push Stroke

Now we go in the opposite direction with the push stroke. I flip the blade over and push away from my body. I’m making sure to hold the blade to match the edge bevel.

Step 3b: Push Stroke Rotation

Like with the pull stroke, I rotate the blade along the curvature of the belly and end at the tip. That’s two strokes. I repeat steps 1-3 for a total of 20 strokes. After 20 strokes, I check the edge to see if I’ve achieved scary sharp knife status. Usually, 20 strokes are enough, but I’ll rinse and repeat if need be. 

Step 4: Raw Leather Stropping (Optional)

Technically, you don’t even need stropping compound. You could just strop with the raw leather, but it would take a lot longer. At this stage, the knife should already be scary sharp. But I like to flip over to the raw leather side and give it another 20 strokes to finish it off. This step is totally optional.

Final Thoughts

The use of strops isn’t a fad or a trend. We have records of humankind using leather strops for over three centuries. Can’t argue with that track record. I use my knives as tools and I like to keep my tools in their peak condition. As a result, I can trust and rely on my knives to perform exactly how I want them to.

With all the fancy sharpening systems out these days, I feel like the leather strop is underrated. Hopefully, I was able to convince you that using a strop is not only wise but necessary. It really is the quickest, easiest, and most consistent way to create scary sharp knives.

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Beaver Craft Leather Paddle Strop

Sharpal Fine Green Stropping Compound