You're sharpening your knife and have tested it to confirm for sharpness. You know that you have achieved it because you've found a burr on the knife's edge. This burr is how we know that the edge has reached the point of absolute sharpness. It attests it. Should you stop there? Oh, but you must. There's only a certain amount sharpening that may be done to an edge. To resume after that only results in needless loss of metal on your blade edge. To resume gains nothing. Are you done then?

you've got a burr on your blade edge and it should be removed. Once you've done that, the edge will usually have miniscule bits of metal still sticking to it. These bits feel just like sand on the edge. But you'd like to get it as fine as it can be, even greasy sharp at that.

maybe you have knives that are going on view. Maybe they are going to be included in a ceremony of some type. Or perhaps you'd just like to show off your fine knives to your buddies and family. I'm sure you'd desire your edges to shine , to make them silky smooth. Well, then. It's time to strop it.

Stropping is a method used to clean off a blade's edge after sharpening. It is designed to bend and twist those clinging metal pieces till they fall off. It's also done to align the microscopic teeth created on the edge while sharpening. Stropping is done by swiping both sides of your blade's edge over a leather strap. When you can't feel clinging bits, you have successfully stropped your blade edge. It should be shining nice and bright at about that point. This is how stropping was always done in the past, but times are changing.

Did you ever think that you may one day be in a position to electrically strop an edge? I sure didn't. The sector of electric knife sharpening has come an exceedingly long way. Some electric knife sharpeners are quite superb. Many of the costly sharpeners are supplied with their own stropping abrasives. How about that? It is correct. Spend anywhere form over $50 to a few hundred on a phenomenal electrical knife sharpener and it'll both sharpen and strop your blades for you. Just like that. Yes, I know. It kind of feels like an awful lot of cash for merely an electric knife sharpener. But if you have the means and do not care to diddle with it, electric knife stropping is surely possible now. It is entirely up to you.

A cordless electric knife is also a great way in automating and saving time while carving. An example of a brand that offers these kind of knives is cuisinart, which I can highly recommend (cuisinart cek40 electric knife)

Let's make one point very clear. Stropping is not sharpening. It's not, really. But stropping with a polishing compound or an abrasive compound sure is. When you do this, when you add such a compound to the strap, the stropping has now become its own type of sharpening. Because it can now remove metal from the edge, it's a sharpener. All on its own , however , the strap can do no more than strop an edge. Therein lies the difference.

For fine knife sharpening, stropping is always the final step. It is done after absolute sharpness has been achieved. It makes each knife edge as fine as it can be. They can shine and shine. Isn't that special?.

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