Jemico 23" Russian Canvas Razor Strop

For the last stage in honing any blade, it is hard to beat leather. Some prefer a block of flat-smooth balsa wood, but a ton of experts over scores of generations have used leather to hone in that final "mystical edge of terror".In order to obtain that scary sharp edge, it is necessary to "load" the leather of this strop with a fine abrasive compound. There are a variety of these on the market. Some use 0.5 micron chromium oxide paste, which is a green colored detergent based paste in a bottle. You dab a few drops on the strop and use a piece of cardboard or paper to smooth the paste over the strop. What you get is a surface that is the equivalent of a 60,000 grit whetstone. However, this surface is flexible and cleans the blade. I, myself, prefer a 0.25 micron diamond slurry spray loaded with 21 carat industrial diamond particles. I got it from handamerica.com. This is the equivalent of a 100,000 grit whetstone.When you load this leather strop with your abrasive of choice, the edge you get from it is truly outrageous. I always wondered why I could never obtain a "shaving sharp" blade using my whetstones alone. This is because no whetstone made can reach the level of fine abrasion that you get with a loaded strop. All my knives shave hair like a straight razor now.One other benefit of stropping is the mirror reflective edge most culinary steels will develop. I happen to have a couple of knives made of CPM-S30V and CPM-S35TN. Those blade edges shine like a brand-new silver dollar when I stop them using this leather.