Leather Honing Strop for Knife Sharpening with Polishing Compound Double Sided (3 Inch by 8 Inch)

The instructions that come in the package are inspired. The author is patient, unassuming, and wise. The instructions gently led me down the path towards using the suede side of the strap with the green compound for my kitchen cutlery and carry knives. The results were amazing: my decade-old, 6-inch Wusthof chef's knife went from slicing about 5 inches into paper to slicing through all 12 inches of the paper, as if it were factory sharpened. Not just that -- Instead of veering left or right, it cut perfectly straight down through all 12 inches of paper. I am a beginner, with three years of sharpening on a diamond/stone under my belt. A month ago, I gouged my thumb while using a dull bread knife to dice a tough-skinned french bread loaf for croutons. In response, I bought a couple of new knives and started using angle guides religiously to respect the blade angles when sharpening. The results were good -- all my old knives were sharp. But not factory sharp / shaving sharp like the new knives. With this strop, I'm pretty darned close. I followed the instructions to a tee: if the knife is dull, then sharpen it with a coarse or medium sharpening stone. If the knife is already sharp, then hone it on a fine-grade stone. Then use the strop. Unless it's a barber's razor, use the suede side and the green compound. Keep the angle as low as you can, like 10 degrees or lower. Always strop towards the back of the blade, just like a barber in the movies. Only thing to add to the instructions: keep a small stack of printer paper, cut in half, near your knives. Never sharpen or hone a knife without first making five slices through a piece of paper, about 1/4" apart. This takes about 10 seconds for a pairing knife, maybe 20 seconds for a long chef's knife. Sharpen, five slices. Hone, then five more slices. Strop, then five more slices. If you're doing it right, then the knife will cut deeper and deeper into the paper at each stage. If your angle is wrong during sharpening, you'll make the knife even more dull than it was when you began! It takes time to build up the muscle memory required to keep the correct angle constant through each pull across the sharpening surface. A beginner will never get better without objective evidence of effectiveness. Here are links to my tri-hone sharpening system and the angle guides that I find really helpful: Smith's 50008 8-Inch Diamond Tri-Hone Bench Stone https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001I6JGL4 Wedgek Angle Guides (Blue, 1) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4QMO7U

When I first began the process of learning how to sharpen my own knives, I wondered, "should I get a leather strop? Do they really help?" If you're wondering about those same questions, the answers are "yes" and "yes, quite a bit." Stropping is the best way to finish the sharpening process, and will give you a sharper, more consistent edge than any other medium. If fact, I'd suggest buying at least two or three strops so that each of the types of stropping compound you're using has a dedicated, pre-loaded strop--it's not worth the trouble of trying to clean a strop so as to use it for different colors colors/grits. But that shouldn't be too much of a financial burden because strops are inexpensive, and that's why I bought this one: is was the best price for the approximate size on Amazon. And it works great. There's no reason to spend more, unless you want a larger piece of leather, or want one that comes already mounted on a board. But the size of this one is plenty big for knives, and it's just the right size to mount on a 2x4, so save yourself the money and just mount it yourself on a piece of scrap wood. As for the compounds, the sticks arent large, but it takes so little to load up a strop that I won't need to buy more for years. Overall, an excellent strop for an excellent price.

The strop is easy to use and seems of good quality (from my limited experience). Seems really short and small but did a good job on my knives.

If you want a real nice polished edge after honing your chisels or plane irons this leather works well. I put a primary bevel (25 degrees) on my bench chisels/plane irons with a Work Sharp or my slow speed grinder. I then use a Lee Valley honing guide to put on a secondary bevel (30 degrees) using three water stones up to 8000. Finally, I strop the secondary with the green compound on leather. It takes on a mirror finish and I'll touch it up on the strop for fine work. Realize stropping is not the same as sharpening. Stropping polishes while honing puts the edge on a tool. FYI-I glued the strop to two layers of 3/4" MDF and stapled a piece of shelf/drawer liner to the underside to keep it from sliding when used. Update-I ordered a second leather strop for the suede side to be used with Tormek stropping compound. There were knife slash marks on that side so I had to return it. I ordered another one hoping the first was a fluke. I cleaned off the green compound from the original one and now strop the plain leather side (smooth). I did this since I'm going for scary sharp on some carving chisels and a curved spoon knife. Update-the second strop came and the suede side was good. I attached it to MDF and treated it with light weight oil and Tormak PA70 honing compound. It works great in polishing the secondary bevel on chisels. My carving chisels are scary sharp. I only strop my bench chisels if I'm doing fine work -certainly not for chopping out mortises.

Good quality thick leather, However it's too stiff upon arrival and it's almost stiff as a cardboard and has no give to it, definitely cannot be rolled up as shown in picture. You need to massage the leather by fold it back and forth to open up the grain and make it softer. Then it's a good strop.

Does what it says

The leather is very nice. It Is free of blemishes and measures the advertised 8 x 3 x 1/8 inch. The 12.99 I paid seems fair. A decent amount of green and white compound were included.

It was as described and delivered on time

Fair value.