SHARPAL 204N Leather Strop (Genuine Cowhide) 8" x 3" Kit with 2 Oz. Polishing Compound & Angle Guide, Knife Stropping Block for Sharpening & Honing Knives, Straight Razor, Woodcarving Chisels

I sharpen knives and tools professionally, and I wanted a new strop for that final finishing polish. My other strop already has green honing compound on it, and so I plan to use the green compound that came with this Sharpal paddle strop on my other strop.The Sharpal strop is mounted on a wood paddle with a good handle and 8 inches of leather on each side. One side has high quality smooth leather, and the other side has a suede side, also high quality and thicker leather than I usually see on other strops. I needed several uses on the suede side to get a uniform surface feel. The smooth side is very uniform leather with no irregularities in the fine grain.The strop handle has a hole in it so that the strop can be hung in the workshop. Because I travel to sharpen, I store my strop in the sturdy cardboard box that it came in.The strop comes with an angle guide, although this has to be used with care to avoid cutting the leather. Place the angle guide at the end of the strop, with the appropriate angle facing away from the leather. Place your knife flat against the desired angle and carefully observe how the knife appears. Then remove the angle guide, set the knife at the memorized angle, and pull the knife so that it drags across the leather, with the edge trailing behind the blade. (Stropping methods are easier to watch on YouTube than explain in words.)After you have stropped a few times, you probably won't need the angle guide except as an occasional reminder.The green compound that comes with the paddle strop appears to be of good quality. Not too hard, not too soft.One of the photos shows the smooth side of the paddle. A ruler shows the length of the leather. The angle guide also appears, along with a Puma skinner knife made in 1971.The other photo shows the suede side, and also a tall petty knife made from pipeline steel by Dao Vua, a Vietnamese forger.I am very happy with this Sharpal 205H double-sided leather strop and expect to get years of use from it.

This strop is excellently built. The dual sided construction is great. The more course side is perfect for stropping and edge and getting that razor sharp edge. While using the smooth side helps get that mirror finish. I highly recommend you spread the compound over the more course side nice and thick. Choose your angle with the angle guide and do about 5-10 strokes on each side of your knife. Flip over to the smooth side and run your knife down the smooth side without compound about 5-10 strokes on each side. Your edge will be shaving sharp and shine like a mirror. Highly recommend keeping at least one of these around. The sharpal compound works great as well, and the angle finder is great.The only con with the angle finder tool, is it doesn’t work the best with very small bladed knoves. You have set it flat on the tool and slide it down almost like you stropping it on the tool.That’s a very minor setback though. Overall and amazing and well built strop. 10/10

Nothing fancy but good quality and does the job

It's a great strop at a good price with a company that stands behind their product. If you need a strop to keep your knives sharp --- pull the trigger and stop scrolling, you'll like it.

Been using for a couple months now and it's great. The rouge included doesn't flake off like some cheaper strop kits and spreads on cleanly. Haven't needed to reapply compound yet and I use the strop quite frequently after work several times a week. Haven't used the angle guide included but it's a neat idea for beginners and I may use it on my whetstone if I ever need to teach somebody how to sharpen on the future

Work well and it does leave knives super sharp!

The rough side did a nice job removing the burr on a Kitchen Paring Knife. Will try the smooth side next after using the fine side to refute me the bevel.

angle guide huge plus, i even use it on my sharpening stone. value for price is great.