My favorite Strops and other alternatives 

Would baking soda work?

While I'd agree that's generally true, but I'd argue that firmness is more important than thickness. Thinner leathers are usually either pulled tighter, or so thin theres not a lot of physical space for compression. If a leather is firm enough, it doesn't matter how thick it is. For example, wood is so hard (firm), it really doesn't compress, so it doesnt matter if its 2mm thick or 2 inches thick.

@@cp1532 basically. the reason why people get kangaroo strops is because they are thinner and you basically relying on your backing plate to be stiff. i also have some super firm horse butt leather. its not thin by any stretch, but it works well because its so firm.

using heat on leather is not good. but i have done that to get green compound into leather and it works. would recommend some leather conditioner to help cause it will be dried out. also avoid alcohol on leather too. it may work to clean it, but its not good for the leather.

Tactical Center Thanks. I’ll check out some mink oil or whatever.

its drawback is that its not diamond paste/spray. meaning it would not be idea for use on steel with lots of vanadium or chromium carbides. such as s30v, s110v etc. it will work, but you will notice a difference between them in use, sharpness and in sharpening speed.

I've mostly just noticed that it leaves a more toothy edge on the knife after stropping s35 etc. which I don't mind. Not sure about time since it's the only one I've used.

I can get a hair whittling edge off on 1000 grit Diamond stones and 3 micron

I got 1 micron tech diamond emulsion and jende nano cloth I can whittle beard hair but not a head hair gonna try .5 micron jende emulsion with nano cloth next

@@damensutherland7081 if you debur the apex properly you should be able to whittle a hair with much lower than .5 , it also depends on your edge angle, a 15 degrees per side edge is much easier to whittle than say a 20 dps edge. My Spyderco Police has a 14dps edge finished on 600 grit diamond plates with 10 passes on 3.5 micron gunny juice and it whittles the hair from my wife’s comb and it can cut a free standing strain of hair. It’s a really aggressive edge nice and toothy

I've tried a lot of woods, and a lot of everything else. Basswood is my favorite. I still look for new mediums to experiment with, and use other strops occasionally, but that's really just part of the sickness. If I had to pick only one to use, or to recommend, basswood is it.

@@cp1532 its great. I do still really like kangaroo leather though!. I havent tried nanocloth yet, but I'm happy with the results I get from basswood, and roo leather. I sharpen professionally, so I get the chance to experiment with tons of different stones, grit progressions, stropping compounds, etc

Haha yea kangaroo is my 2nd choice. And never tried nano either. Everything I've heard about it sounds like it just isn't my style.

@@cp1532 same here. Everything I hear about it, you either love it, or hate it

@@nathenwallis5664Yea. IIRC it excels at polishing, best if used with very light pressure, maybe trailing strokes only, cant remember. But I feel like it has potential, the concept that is. Maybe it just needs to be harder? Idk, but there has to be some kind of material or formula out there that can be manufactured to outperform natural strops. I just don't think we're quite there yet.