Sharpness: A leather strop with a twist

Carving wood means having sharp knives. I use regular old sharpening stones, but also resort to sandpaper, ceramic rods, and leather strops with polishing compound. I'm confident that I can bring most blades to a nice edge, and many blades with good steel to armhair-shaving perfection. The strop I've put together here carries a small ceramic rod. The rod is great for touching up a blade just before a few swipes on the leather. The ceramic rod's handle has a flathead nail in it, which contacts a rare earth magnet in the strop board, holding the rod safe and secure. This a rough version, and I plan on making the next one a little smoother looking, but the idea has borne fruit. I think it's a neat little sharpening kit.

Keeping the crooked knife sharp

The crooked blade is extremely helpful when carving concave shapes such as those needed for bowls and spoons. Unfortunately, this helpful shape can be tough to sharpen on traditional sharpening stones. The best solution is to make the sharpening gear fit the blade shape. Here's what I use, and how to make your own.

First, gather the items seen in this first photo. You'll need:
-scrap of leather
-polishing compund (I'm going with Flexcut Gold, but jewler's rouge or the like will work too)
-sandpaper of varying grits (here I'm using 220 and 600 wet/dry)
-three straight sticks about the size and shape of the inside curve of the knife blade
-stapler with staples



Cut the leather to wrap once around a stick, fuzzy suede side out, then staple it in place. I used a basic office stapler, but I suppose a staplegun would be even better. Apply some of the polishing compund to the leather. Do the same with the sandpaper on the other two sticks, only without any polishing compound. You now have two sharpening sticks and a strop for your crooked knife!



When using the sharpening sticks and strop, wipe them down the blade from spine to edge. Only go in this direction. Start with the coarsest stick first, then the next finest, and finally polish with the strop.



When you're done, the edge should be nicely polished and sharp enough to remove arm hairs. Careful now!

Bench Strop

This strop will replace the short little slipstrop I've been using. Construction couldn't have been more simple. I made it from basswood, scrap leather, and superglue. I did a little abstract carving on top just for fun, and added a leather braid. I'm using Flexcut polishing compound on the leather.

This should help keep my blades shaving sharp!