How To Clean A Knife Sharpening Strop | How To clean a Buffing Wheel
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2018
- How To Clean A Knife Sharpening Strop | How To clean a Buffing Wheel for knife sharpening/ knife making.
In this video I show you how I clean my knife strops. I also show how I clean my buffing wheels.
My Favorite Strop pre-made amzn.to/2lYZm7w
Carpet blades amzn.to/2tX0yMW
Green compound for a diy strop used in this video amzn.to/2zcquJF
Knife used in this video
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Buffing wheel
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About⬇️
Hi, Im Alex, im a knife maker and UA-camr, based out of southern Pennsylvania and my youtube channel is Outdoors55. This channel started as an outdoor backpacking channel, but quickly grew into a knife/ knife making channel. Everything I do on my channel is family friendly. I primarily focus on knife / knife making videos but occasionally throw in something different. Thank you for watching!😀
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I've been sharpening my own knives for 15 years, and with COVID out there, I've been doing it as a side-hustle. As a fairly experienced knife sharpener, I want you to know that your videos are probably the only ones out there that I genuinely learn from on the subject. Keep up the good work.
I'm a sharpening newbie, and his sharpening videos are the ones I also refer to. Thanks to his tutorials, the first knives I sharpened came out razor edge. ....I'm here because I wanted to see what kind of maintenance a strop block needs. Good work indeed.
I wanna know which spyderco that was
@@voxpopuli905 Looks like a carbon fibre Sage 5
Same I pretty much just started sharpening well 2 years ago. Before then I used a coarse file and paid no mind to my angles. Needless to say, I had some pretty lousy "edges" this guy's a pretty good teacher and now my edges look like mirrors.
I have a lot of experience, and lots of stones, is there some profit in your venture, of is this more of a pass-time for your day, Thanks.
First time I have managed to get a razor sharp edge on my knives, failing with all the other techniques in books and here on youtube. Rough stone and then a 1000 water stone and then a strop. That has worked for a dummie like me. Thank you so much!
I have watched a number of videos that didn't answer my questions about making a strop and then cleaning a strop. I watched two of your videos and they explained everything I needed to know. Appreciate all of your other videos keep up the great work and thank you for the great info.
Your videos are both informative and entertaining….never boring as most. Thank you
Good info! I just cleaned my hand held strop and the circular strop on my Tormek machine. I sharpen knives every day over and over again as part of my job.
I recently tried cleaning my buffing wheel with a used (but relatively clean) 80 grit belt from my 4x36 grinder. They are relatively rigid and if you cut off a piece and fold them in half, they form a nice edge that catches a lot of the built up compound. A bit safer too. Figured I'd mention it since it seemed to work pretty well.
Been wondering how to clean my strop but hadn't looked for an answer. Your vid just popped up in my list so checked it out. Nice.
safest way to clean any soft rotating buffing wheel is a buffing spur. They can be found in most automotive paint supply stores and there is little to no danger in using it... just ggogle 3m buffing spur.
Great tip👍
thanks! I actually needed this...
I love the channel bro. You are always posting stuff that I am interested in good job man!
Thanks man!
Love your stuff, keep up the great work and advice 😁👍
Than you for the "safety warning" and the way you said it. So many people do fun and interesting things in videos and go on and on about why you are not supposed to try this at home. That is a surefire way to get most people to try it at home; tell them not to. The bad thing about that is that once people hear the huge warnings, they tune out all of that and also tune out the precautions that may be mentioned after the warning.
Of course, part of me wishes I had listened to one of my favorite crafting UA-camrs' warning about glitter, but the rest of me is satisfied that everything is so sparkly. It's a woman child's dream come true. My entire house and, after several showers including a Silkwood style shower, I are all covered in glitter....still. Now we know what is in Pandora's box. Glitter.
Subscribed for the "safety warning" that worked by making me listen instead of tuning out like the "na na ne boo boo, I get to do this, but you can't." aspect that most warnings have.
Hey thanks for making these types of videos man. Your videos are really Informative.
i've been cleaning my strops with 800 grit sandpaper for about a year now and it's been very effective for me
Thank you for the video, I appreciate it. As far as adding mineral, or other oil to condition the strop, I just let it soak in good for 24 hrs before adding the stropping compound on the top, after wiping up any excess oil. Also, adding oil to the strop, then wiping it off with a cloth seems to work pretty good for pulling off the load up.
All Very Very Good Advice!!! Remember people practice makes perfect! Thanks Alex!!!! ⚔️
Excellent video!! Thank you!
Thanks, good Tip!
Perfect! I have feather artist club blades I use for shaving. That'll probably work just as well as that carpet blade for cleaning. Thanks for the tip.
As all of your videos, educating, entertaining & the right amount of humor!
Greetings from Germany💚🤘
Keep it simple. Thanks.
Thank you so much for what you do
I use a piece of scrap wood and 60 or 80 grit sandpaper to clean my buffing wheels.
Great channel, cheers !!!
you make awesome vids, been a while since you made one, keep at it, you show good ways to make knife making and maintenance easy
Found it!!! Thanks a lot
Thank you for another great video
Nice cleaning tip bro...thanks
Wow the razor info is awesome, much thanks I didn't know that
I've been using the 90º spine on some of my more bushcraft type knives for both operations. I imagine a cabinet scraper would work really well on the strop without the risk of severing a tendon.
Great info. I have a couple knives plus strops. Every time it gets full i order a new one. Probably not the best idea. haha Anyway thanks for the video Alex.
Fun tip, you can use any carvable wood as a strop for gouges or shaped tools. Just use the tool and carve into the wood the exact shape of the tool and then add rouge
I've been scraping the old compound off my strops using basically the same way before your video.
Great info Alex. I didn’t know about the carpet razors.
good stuff dude OUTDOORS55 great videos
Great vid lots of good info here ,TKS
Personally I use a brass wire brush(toothbrush sized) to recondition my strops and buffing wheels. For strops I lightly brush the surface with the brass brush then tap the strop on its side and the crud falls right off. The wire brush leaves me with a really nice surface. To apply compound. For that I LIGHTLY heat the strop(heat gun) then apply the compound the same way as you did. For me, this seems to work great. For the buffing wheel I just hold the brush up to it for a minute or till its clean. Not nearly as dangerous as the putty knife technique but works just as good!
I was watching H.I.S. Survival on UA-cam, and he cleaned his strop with a school eraser! LOL...I kid you not. It seemed to work really well, and there is zero chance of damaging the leather. I’ve never tried, but seems like it’s worth a shot. His compound came off in clumps until the strop looked virtually brand new.
Interesting. Never heard of that method but ill have to try it. Thanks for the suggestion 👍
Good tip about the Carpet razor blades (you could wrap one side with paper tape for protection) . All this time I have been using regular single sided razor blades . Now I have 1 more thing to worry about . Not cutting my fingers off (that would make knife sharpening a bit difficult lol!!!) .... Thanks .
Great vid
I've been experimenting with different types of strops, smooth side up with compound, rough side up with compound, regular leather and natural tanned buckskin. What I've found is that the smooth side up acts more like a very fine grit stone, the buckskin is softer and curls around the edge more both smooth and rough sides, the smooth side seems like a more aggressive type in both case's, I use the smooth side to finish new edges and the rough side to maintain used edges. Natural buckskin might be hard to come by (got mine from an old pair of moccasins at a goodwill) but you might want to try it if you can find some.
Which compound do you use??
I always use the smooth side up. The edge get even a little sharper that way. I avoid the skin curling around the edge. The edge would perhaps be slightly rounded if I used the suede side i guess.
I recently have gotten into Spyderco knives and I can tell that you really like them as well. If you have a little extra time at any point it would be fun to see your Spyderco collection as big or small as it may be. Including things like which knife is your favorite and why you like the brand Spyderco. I really love your channel and you inspired me to make my first knife and find a joy in both making and collecting. Thank you for what you do and for providing me with the knowledge to make my first knife and start a new hobby!
I may do that in the future! Thanks for the suggestion😀 I really appreciate you taking the time to watch and comment! Good luck with your knife making. It’s definitely a fun hobby 👍
Nice job my friend. Sometimes I use a bit of heat when loading a strop, especially with the finer compounds. It seems to make the process easier for me anyway. Wade
I have done that as well. I does definitely help load the strop. I usually get too aggressive with it though and end up way overloading the strop. That’s my problem though 😉👍👍
Another channel mentioned heat, and because the compound vehicle is some kind of wax, it made sense to me to soften it. That's what I did and it worked great.
Great tips as always. I have recently started using diamond paste and sprays on my strops.I am finally happy with the sharpness on my knives edges. Ain't this stuff fun? Thanks again.
I see you on every knife vid I watch holy shit, you and Captain Spaulding lol
Thanks for the video ... I was wondering how to take the caked sheen off my strop 👍
My knife and newfound sharpening addiction thanks you greatly..
A regular old pink eraser will remove the green compound nicely also.
I've found that one of those huge erasers works well to help pull the compound off. I'll use a razor blade to scrape a majority of the compound off and then the eraser to help get a bit more of it off. Works best on smooth leather but will work for both.
Good info. And I think that was the first time I’ve seen you smile.
Haha! It’s a rare thing😉
I have found that's be helpful also I found guitar picks for the leather strap to be helpful
I have a little heat gun I use to get the compound on nice and smooth and soaked in
So I did some temp work at a metal finishing shop and I learned there they would take an old band saw blade and break off like a 12 in chunk and use that to clean the buffing wheels. I now do that and works well.
I use a flat head screwdriver to clean a buffer works like a dream
I scrape my strop the same way with the off side of my sharp spine. I like the side I scrape a Ferro rod with sharp and the other a little knocked down for thumb assists so using that side works double duty.
I actually started using automotive compund to rub into a strop I made from your videos, works really well and you can see much clearer when the compound is getting old cause it is white and turns to an obvious greyish black. To get that off is a bit trickier, I usually just wash it off with water and let the strop dry.
ThisIsAPrettyLongUserNameWhyTheFuckWouldHeDoThatSoThatEveryoneWouldThumbsUpIt First off awesome name lol Second Automotive compound is probably the best you could use! I only wash my strop when it gets really bad but I can see where its nicer to fully wash it 🙂
Flitz works awesome on strops as well
yes, I use Mother's aluminum polish. I had it laying around and gave it a try. works great for both stropping, and polishing the blade
I just used some olive oil to clean some motorcycle chrome polish off mine that seemed to loosen it up pretty well then I wire brush it and scrape off all the black stuff with a knife then scrub with paper towel.
Old chisel is as good as anything for the wheel. Believe there are also buffing wheel paddles that have multiple rows of sturdy teeth. Quick touch under the wheel, add some fresh compound...back to work. Cheers
For the wheel cleaning I use a wire file, that seems to clean things fairly well and if a wire comes off in the process it is thrown away from me as I approach the spinning wheel from the bottom or at a downward angle. I have also tried a Brillo pad, but that was gross; the next closest was a brush used for scrubbing bathroom tiles. The hard plastic bristles from the bathroom scrubber worked well for removing grime from the cloth wheel without destroying the cloth as much as the wire brush; however, I thought the wire brush was faster at cleaning it.
I don't cake my stops with compound to the extent that you do. The way I like them, a light sanding with 180 grit sandpaper does the trick to refresh them.
I looked this up this morning because I'm a newbie sharpener wondering about cleaning a strop, but didn't comment. But as a wise guy, I couldn't not mention this. Based on some of your other videos (the $24 ebay Damascus, for example), you seem to have a sense of humor. That said, after using the carpet blade to clean your strop, could you use said strop to get the edge back on the blade? ...more seriously, one thing you could do to minimize a finger cut from the double edged blade is fold tape over the side not being used. I do that all the time, and fold blue painter's tape over spent box cutter knife blades when disposing of them. Anyway, thanks for your videos.
Mr Beal fron the Beal Buff system recommends some rough sandpaper wrapped around a board. can still be thrown Into to your skull, but less likely to penetrate.
I know this is an older video
I made a strop using brown duck fabric. Seems to work pretty good.
Damn Alex your a mind reader too? I was just wondering how to clean my main strop🤔 thanks for the idea and your timely video!👍
Yes this is just one method. I have found compound seems to break down fairly quickly so I do this often. You might be surprised at how much better your strops work after cleaning them😀
Looks like you could use a card scraper for the strop for a reusable option. For the wheel, the chisel makes sense where it's thicker
I use a heatgun to melt the compound slightly and apply it then. Much easier and faster.
I use to clean my strop with an old piece of sandpaper that was course back in its day
Mahalo 😎🤙
Hope your doing well Alex and things are going well for you!! Looking forward to your return
Things are going well! Busy, so hopefully ill be back into it soon! Hope things are going well for you too👍
Hey Alex can you do a video all about how you get your knives so darn perfect looking in the finish of the blade and handle?
I think its just consistency and patience my man.
I go over my strops with a large rubber eraser. I’m not saying this a better way though. Just an alternative.
I do something similar but instead of a carpet blade, I use the disposable straight razor blades.
Ik I'm Hella late lmao but my uncle has one and I just made one idk how to apple the compound the first time cause he said theirs several steps for the first one but when you strop a knife metal shaving (the Grey stuff) get in to your stop as you showed. Ut it helps shape ur knife bc it removes some material and it shapens it lol idk if that makes sence to you. Ut it just works and every time after that you just applied the compound when needed you don't scrape anything off cause over time it's WeReS out and you just need to add more
Just Got a ganzo fire bird aka a good quality copy spyderco para 4 Can u try to sharpen one and compare it to the actual spyderco? Ps love your vids keep it up pal
For buffing wheels, try using a farriers rasp. Safer and effective
Hi how long do you have to wait for the new compound to dry or can you start stropping straight away? Great video!!. 👍🏻
Nice video my man. For me I usually just use this shitty scissors I have and that seems to be working for me.
ALOHA!!!
thanks for the video, Do you have any input on the Cliff Stamp plateau method of sharpening, and have you tried removing the old edge [as done by Cliff Stamp, and Stefan Wolf, for the same reason, removing the fatigued metal], before sharpening, as they do. It seems to make a difference for me, but I don't have a 30 gigawatt ultra magnifying glass. Once again, many thanks
Denim works very well. One, two or three layers (depending on prefered sponginess, three for me) held in place with double sided tape. Unloved jeans, very cheap! The roughish weave takes compound well.
Do you put it on a piece of wood like my strop is? How do you find the jeans do with polishing? Does it seem like you get a mirror edge faster than leather? Or same you just like the denim better than leather???
@@timpande6900 Yes, on a piece of wood just like leather. The double sided carpet tape holds it just fine, (full contact), glue (PVA) soaks into the denim and makes it too hard (or so it was when I did just one layer). Polishing seems to be no different from leather, that depends on the compound some I expect?, I only have one compound, Smurf Poo. Nice shiny bevel! I just like/tried denim as it's cheaper/free and more available. It's certainly tough enough, it doesn't seem to wear out at all, but for some fraying at the edges initially, and the weave does, as I say, strip the compound from the bar more readily, which is useful. Thanks for replying.
@@timpande6900 .... also, glue requires clamping and this helps to make the denim too hard, and the first layer (glued) of denim will show all imperfections in the wood's surface. I put two extra layers, with tape, on the first glued layer (which was too hard and imperfectly flat), now it just fine.
Rockstead knives recommend maintaining their convex blades on a denim strop.
I'm going to make one myself. Thanks.
Instead of a razor blade, I use an old extra cabinet scraper to remove to old compound. Works exactly the same way but with much less danger of getting cut.
Not a bad idea. however after having bought 3 or 4 garbage hair clippers over the years, ive dismantled them for parts and one thing ive noticed is that the teeth work great in prepping a new strop and removing the old compound filled with metal dust particles.
Nick Brown - Great idea!!!
Nick Brown interesting method!
SOMEDAY just came!I found two in the workshop yesterday! So great to tell the wife, I TOLD YOU I could find use for these...someday!
Alex, what would you recommend to clean kangaroo leather? Also any tips on refreshing and maintaining it would be appreciated.
I wonder if a dull card scraper would work for this?
I've been using balsa and tossing them when they get loaded.
I use lighter fluid to help loose the compound from the block and also help soak it into the strop.
using a scraper is way safer, wiser, and easier than a double sided carpet blade. Knives with sharp spines such as mora garberg, cansbol, bushcraft or any lt wright knives work well too.
Any difference between the smooth and the rough side of the leather? I made a strop with the rough side up. Compound came in today, so I'll try stropping tomorrow. Do I need to made a strop with the smooth side up as well? Or will a rough strop suffice?
Maybe a link to a good buffing machine. Not wheels but grinder. Thanks Alex
Извини что без перевода,но, можно просто пройти строительным феном. Паста расплавится ,протереть тряпочкой и всё,так и экономия пасты,не надо искать лезвие, и пропитка коженого ремня. Удачи👍
I thought about reversing the motor and working on the top rear position to protect myself but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not 🤷♂️
The fresh surface is called "the napp" The best thing i've found is pure rubbing alcohol. Spray on the strop, and use a flat edge to scrape off the melted compound (mud) onto a paper towel. Allow to dry and you have a new napp (knap?)
Nap.
Can you use different compounds on the same strop after it's been cleaned?
For your buffing wheel that is electric you can also use sandpaper to clean the buffing compound out too
I dont do that due to grit contamination. I know it works but once you get sandpaper grit into your strop its hard to remove. Just a thought😀
I've done superfinishing for years on medical devices, do not remove compound in this way its far to dangerous! Use a stainless steel wire brush near the bottom of the wheel. Lightly remove all the old compound off. Leaves the wheel fluffy and ready to give you a mirror finish.
I was always told as a kid to apply buffing compound to your strop then warm the strop a little with a blow dryer. Compound soaks in a little deeper. But it might be an old wives tale.
Matthew M I will have to try that!
Matthew M Lol for sure buddy 😂
Yep heat works just fine. I have a couple videos demonstrating that. For me I find I end up overloading the strop with heat but that’s my problem lol. Adding head can definitely help👍👍
@Matthew M lmao,but that's true
I appreciate the rough side cleaning tip but how do you clean the smooth side of a strop, do you use the same method by dragging a razor blade over the smooth side?
Does this work with the knifes plus strop ?
would you know how to clean my 3m surface belts?
Very interesting. Never actually thought about doing something like this.
What is the best method for getting cuts out of a strop? I have only seen one guy on yt ever do that so I tried.. and there was the cut in the leather...
KingJL25 If the cut isnt very deep in the leather dont worry about it! It will work just fine for you, but if the leather you have on it isnt very expensive you could just replace it
If youve got green compound on the furry side of the strop... can you then scrape that off and apply diamond emulsion??? How would you clean it well enough to apply diamond emulsion
What are your thoughts on different compounds for stropping? Like the diamond paste vs. the type you used in this video??
Can we just use some kind of solvent for the same.
What strop and compound do you use?
Hey Alex, great vids. I have a question that the answer to has eluded me forever. How much "pressure" do you apply to the strop when stropping a knife? Is there a way to quantify that-2-3 pounds of pressure? I've asked this on forums, other channels and can't seem to get a satisfactory answer because what to one person is "moderate pressure" to another it's "light pressure" or vice versa.
Its hared to say, and also depends on steel type. Some steel seem to require more pressure than others. I always lean to the side of light pressure but if your not seeing results with light pressure add some. I usually vary pressures not angles on a strop. It also depends on the strop itself. With a new strop I experiment with pressure till I get the results I'm looking for. Some strops and blades require heavy pressure while others seem to be fine with super light pressure. Just my experience😀