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

[Chris Hachet]

So I like to strop when I sharpen, I find it helpful. Also, I use leather to strop.

I have a vegan friend who is an animal rights activist who does not want to use leather to strop with on moral grounds. What is the best non animal product to suggest in the place of leather?

Chris

[Sean Hughto]

A lot of folks use a chunk of dense mdf.

[Derek Cohen]

You could try lettuce leaves.

Regards from Perth

Derek

p.s. hardwood works better than leather.

[Chris Hachet]

Thanks!

Chris

[Zach Dillinger]

I have tried stropping on a piece of a brown paper grocery bag on my bench top. I forget where I heard about it but thought it was neat. It works very well but it is easy to cut them up if you aren't careful.

I agree with Derek re: hardwood. The strop that lives on my bench is a piece of quartersawn white oak with Noxon metal polish on one side and a piece of leather with yellow compound on the other. I tend to just use the oak side more often than not.

[george wilson]

I've been using an MDF strop with green LV compound on it. I like the feel of leather better,but the MDF doesn't round the cutting edge like leather can. I keep it in a shelf where dust cannot settle on it.

[lowell holmes]

+1 for mdf and green LV compound!

[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.

[Robert LaPlaca]

How about some thin cardboard from the back of a pad of paper (like a legal writing pad), charge it with some green or yellow compound, place on flat surface..

[Malcolm Schweizer]

A piece of very thick felt, and I don't mean felt cloth. You can buy felt that is like a brick and they sell it at knife stores for taking the burr off an edge. I have a felt wheel for my Worksharp 2000 and you could strop on it without the machine by hand. It is a bit small, but would work. Balsa wood works as well, and as stated, MDF.

Good question by the way. My father-in-law is vegetarian, but thank goodness he eats fish (I don't get it either, but he does) and so when he visits at least I can have fish that week. He spends his time trying to make tofu taste more like meat. I am always kidding him about that.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Good question by the way. My father-in-law is vegetarian, but thank goodness he eats fish (I don't get it either, but he does) and so when he visits at least I can have fish that week. He spends his time trying to make tofu taste more like meat. I am always kidding him about that.

I hate MDF, but I got to say your FIL has a better chance of making MDF taste like meat than tofu

[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.