Knife Sharpening Thread....

I envy you guys ability to sharpen free-handed....My grandpa spent countless hours with me trying to teach me how to do it when I was a kid, but I just never could pick it up. Can't get consistent with it....

And he was a huge fan of a leather strop too, dphillips. He had an old barber strop, and every year he'd tune our skinning knives up with it before deer season opened. And they would hold an edge forever, it seemed.....I still have that old strop here at my house, hanging up in my gun room. Never try to use it, just a piece of family history.

dphillips said:

that is something neat to hang on too. I have been thinking about buying a new strop. I looked for old ones but most of them were not taken care of to be used. They are kept for the same reason you have yours, which there is nothing wrong with that. Is the one you have just leather or is it leather and canvas?

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It's just leather.....Probably around 12-15" long, and about 2-3" wide, with a big steel ring at the top. My dad acquired it when my grandpa died, and it sat in his gun cabinet for about 15 years. By the time I discovered it, it had some mildew on it, and the leather was dried and cracking. I cleaned it up, and put some saddle soap on it. That may have messed it up for future sharpening purposes. Just a little piece of history now....