How to Choose (and use) Your First Strop - Complete Beginner Whittling Lesson

In this video you will learn how to choose and use your first strop. A strop is a must have piece of equipment for the beginner as it is used for keeping your knife sharp.
At the end of this video you will be able to:
1) Identify what a strop and stropping compound are.
2) Apply stropping compound to a strop.
3) Demonstrate proper technique for stropping your whittling knife.
4) Choose a strop
Flexcut PW14 Knife Strop with Flexcut Gold Compound (affiliate link*): www.amazon.com/Flexcut-PW14-P...
Series Description: Welcome to the Complete Beginner Whittling Lessons Series! This series is intended for people who are completely new to whittling and looking for advice on how to get started. It starts with a series of four videos about what equipment and materials are needed for whittling and then there will be a series of projects that will teach the basics of whittling while completing specific projects.
Note that this series focuses on what I would call hobby whittling using dedicated whittling knives and wood that are specifically designed for whittling as a hobby. We will not focus on found wood carving, knives that are not specifically dedicated to whittling, spoon carving, bushcraft or other forms of whittling and woodcarving in this series.
*Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means that I make a small commission on purchases made when clicking on the links provided with my videos.

[@scottfield598]

Thanks, I’ve been intimidated by my strop for a while. I’ve learned so much from this video. +1 subscriber

[@mikereed4876]

6:47 speak for yourself! thanks for the lessons

[@scottdunn6065]

thanks for the vids, very useful info, q, how to tell when strop is wore out to replace?

[@andreasb.145]

As there is no answer to your question yet: It's really hard to wore out a strop/leather. I have strops for more than 10 years now and they only need some refresh from time to time. Refreshing a strop is really easy. All you need is some sandpaper 60 or 80 grid (or something similar) and a flat piece of wood. Wrap a piece of sandpaper around the flat wood and just rub the sandpaper over the leather. You don't need much pressure. Just enough to rough the leather a little bit There is no need to remove a lot of leather. This way the compound will be more effective while stropping. The leather is getting thinner over the years and this is the only wear I've seen so far on leather strops. Just buy a new piece of leather, around 2 - 3 mm thickness and glue this on top of the old leather, rough side on top (or remove the old leather if possible and if you like). Happy stropping 🙂

[@edtepperphotoart2264]

i've seen others suggest heating the compound to smooth it out. Thoughts?

[@dywoodcarving]

I've seen that recommendation as well. I haven't ever felt the need to do it as I've had no problems getting uniform coverage on the specific strops and compounds I've used. I assume it would help if you're having trouble spreading it evenly.

[@bradtate158]

How often do you add compound?

[@dywoodcarving]

If you load it well the first time you really won't need to add it often. Weeks, even months, depending on how often you use it. It will start to darken over time, that's the steel coming off and is normal, doesn't mean it won't work. If you start noticing bare areas or you feel like stropping isn't having the same impact as it once did, then it's time to add more compound.