Double Sided Hand Strop (25-3081)

Double Sided Hand Strop (25-3081)

• A 220mm by 50mm working surface on each side of the Strop
• Made from a solid beech wood platen
• Specially treated high quality leather
• Overall length is 300mm
• Exclusively Made in the UK by Shark Designs
• Can be used to both Sharpening and Honing 

This strop is made in our own workshops to the highest quality, from a solid Beech wood platen that has superior quality, specially treated, soft, supple leather on each side.
Although originally intended for stropping cutthroat razors, this Double Sided Hand Strop serves equally well for most edge tools in the workshop, in the Great Outdoors, in the Kitchen or in the Workshop.
The overall length of the Double Sided Hand Strop is 300mm including the Handle and each strop has a large 220mm by 50mm working surface on each side of the solid Beech Platern. The working surfaces are made from specially treated leather that will enable you to maintain your razor sharp knife-edge with absolute ease.
When charged with a quality Honing Compound, such as Tormec Honing Paste, the strop will become what is called a 'Honing Strop'. A Honing Strop has the potential to quickly keep all of your cutting tools in the most tip top razor sharp condition, AND for extended periods of time, before the need to re-sharpen them on a Sharpening Stone. Once treated with a Honing Paste the new Honing Strop will enable you to polish off all those blade dulling micro-burrs on your cutting tools, thus enabling you achieve a perfectly polished razor cutting edge in just seconds.
The Shark Double Sided Hand Strop is both durable and ergonomically designed, and with proper care it will give you years and years of untroubled reliable stropping service. 

The Basic Principle Of Stropping

The basic principle behind “Stropping” a cutting edge, like a knife, is to remove the micro-burr that, unavoidably, remains after the re-sharpening process has been completed on a waterstone.  This micro-burr will make your knife edge appear sharper than it actually is, because it is like a very thin piece of wire, just a few molecules thick, but it is very weak and easily detached from the cutting edge, leaving behind a somewhat duller edge than would be desired.  The “Stropping” process, when, for example, a knife, has been properly sharpened, actually, transforms the newly sharpened, apparently sharp, cutting edge into a durable, razor sharp, cutting edge.  The “Stropping” process also polishing the cutting edge after the micro-burr has been removed, this also removes the microscopic furrows that are left behind by the grit particle of the waterstone.  In a nutshell, the “Stropping” process leaves the cutting edge sharper and stronger, which will make it last a whole lot longer than without stropping.

With the addition of a high quality honing paste, the “Stropping” process is dramatically accelerated, since a honing paste is very slightly abrasive.  The application of honing paste (to one surface of your strop only, the other surface remaining untreated) helps to significantly extend the life of your knife’s cutting edge before it will require to be re-sharpened on a waterstone  again.

How To Use Honing Paste

Smear a little honing paste into the surface of your leather strop, in an even thin coat, less is required than you might imagine.  By trailing the cutting edge of your knife, chisel or Plane Iron etc., back and forth, along the strop, using minimal pressure, you will achieve a polished razor edge in a fraction of the time it would have taken without honing paste.  Each application of honing paste should last for several sharpening sessions and you will see that it is working because the paste will start to darken as the metal from your knife is polished away.  Once you have carefully wiped away any excess honing paste from your knife, chisel etc., so as not to contaminate the uncharged side of your strop, you can use the uncharged side of the strop to give the cutting edge a final little polish.

Please Note: We at Shark Designs advise that you ignore the instructions printed on the Honing Paste tube, which recommends that you apply light machine oil to the leather, before you apply the honing paste.  Whilst this does allow deeper penetration of the honing paste it will dramatically darken the leather and will make the strop slightly sticky, which will attract unwanted contaminants to the surface of the strop, thereby shortening the life of your strop.  The oil may also penetrate to the other side of the strop especially on the Field Razor Strop (Basic & Deluxe) models.  We do recommend that you apply the Honing Paste as described above.