The only sharpening question we have not asked yet at the creek....

[Patrick McCarthy]

[QUOTE=george wilson;2365213]I've been using an MDF strop with green LV compound on it.

Well George, I don't really know what to think about this UNLESS you can tell me the Rockwell scale hardness of the MDF. Maybe we need to set up a testing protocol, create some graphs, . . . . . .

Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Laughing WITH you my friend, not AT you.

[Jeff Ranck]

You could try lettuce leaves.

I spit my drink all over my monitor with that comment.

[Michael Ray Smith]

A piece of very thick felt, and I don't mean felt cloth.

What's the felt made of? Wool? Is that okay to a vegan? Even worse, is it fur felt? (I once tried to tell my wife that they get the wild rabbit fur used to my my fur felt hats by trapping the rabbits, shearing them, and then turning them lose. She didn't buy it.)

[george wilson]

Well,I actually have a Shore hardness tester that MIGHT be almost appropriate for testing MDF. It is an "A" scale tester,which is actually for testing the hardness of rubber. A hard rubber shoe heel is about 80 Shore,for example. They probably do have an appropriate tester for just about everything manufactured,since it is necessary for making uniform quality products. I don't know what system is used for MDF,though.(I try to not use that material in my work!)

But,THAT particular thread got me into trouble anyway.

[paul cottingham]

Green rouge on maple works well for me. I have both a leather strop and the hard maple one. Both have rouge on them. Both work very well.
its funny, even when I was a vegetarian (25 years!) leather was never a problem for me.

[Bruce Mack]

Most espousals have impurities and escape clauses. I'm a vegetarian and eat no meat or fish. We get our eggs from our own well-cared for hens, but I do eat dairy and wear a leather belt and shoes. Yet, I refuse to buy a leather strop. Good intentions, poor implementation.

[Stanley Covington]

My razor strop has a thick canvas leaf.

Stan

[george wilson]

I TRIED to eat a strop,but found it a bit too tough.

I'm sure any hard wood will work fine. I just had easy access to a couple of pieces of MDF for the asking at the museum's millwork shop. They use a lot of it making display cases.

[Alan Schwabacher]

I TRIED to eat a strop,but found it a bit too tough.

To see how it's done, Mr. Chaplin's work "The Gold Rush" is quite useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY0DOnNK3Wg

[Steve Bates]

I understand linen strops do a good job as well.

my two pennies

[Chuck Hart]

What do vegans do for shoes?

[george wilson]

Corefam,possibly. The most uncomfortable shoes I ever had in the 60's. Fortunately,the neighbor's dog tore them up. Those things never do "break in" to fit your feet.

[Mel Fulks]

George,I had a pair of corfam shoes,too. Uncomfortable but so long wearing I've wondered if that's why they stopped
making them. They were a "miracle product"in their day.

[Garrett Ellis]

Use a cow that's still alive.

[Mike Cherry]

There's always palm stropping. Your own palm, of course, not a dead one...