Lansky Leather Stropping Hone

Works fine and was nice to add to my kit. Small but works. I have a larger strop to use but it has to be used free handed which is just fine. Gets that nice razor edge on the blade.

I have one of these and got this for my son. He uses it to sharpen his military knives and love it.

I use this with a bit of diamond paste. Does a great job of giving a wonderfully shiny edge. But a note of caution, this leather is very soft and by the time you get to use it, your blade is very sharp. The very slightest movement in the reverse direction will leave a nasty cut in the leather. My Son totaled one of these when he was working a bit too fast. It was only the second knife he tried to do. Even mine has some rough edges from a tiny slip when bringing the strop back for the next pass. Just as a test I used this on one of my good knives. B this knife is a folder with an M390 blade. This is a very hard steel and somewhat hard to sharpen. My last step is normally a Sapphire stone. So I took the sharpen knife after the sapphire stone and checked the sharpness on my sharpness tester. 120- A very very sharp blade ( razor knife tested at 165). Then I used this strop with .1 micron diamond paste. After the strop, the knife tested at 95! That’s one of the sharpest blades I have ever tested! Since then I have finished a number of knives with very fine steel, and after the strop I get many blades that test at close to 100! I should mention that this isn’t any real improvement on some of the cheap steel knives I have done. In fact on many cheap steel knives I stop at the “fine” stone and leave a little “tooth” in the edge so I will hold up to the cardboard I seem to cut a bunch of every day! I also tried using my plain leather full size strop after using this. The results are “about the same” as some blades improve 5 points while some others might get as much as 10 points less. I assume that this is a product of me using the full size strop free hand which doesn’t give as consistent results

if you have the Lanskey set you need this to finish the blade up recommend the Lanskey set if you want to keep knives sharp. just always remember to check what is the recommended angle for your knife

The best way to get truly sharp blades is by using a progressive system of harder and harder stones. But there comes a point where its more effective to create a surface of that hardness, not a solid stone....hence the strops and various STROPPING COMPOUNDS. Wicked Edge makes the best ones.....to a ridiculous degree, where you can't even use leather anymore to hold the compound which is instead sprayed on to a fine brush designed for the purpose. Your typical Lansky system, you may or may not start out with a with an extra course (70 grit), or course (120 grit) diamond stone and then a medium (280 grit) diamond stone or a soft Arkansas stone (300 grit). Creating a new edge or a new edge angle, it's best to use all three, in my opinion. An already sharpened blade, however, you will be working backwards, although that is not always a bad thing if you can't get the original edge angle correct, simply make a new one. The end result will be better. From there, use a fine (600 grit) diamond stone. Then a hard Arkansas (650) grit. An ultra fine diamnond stone (100 grit) and black hard Arkansas (1200 grit). By now your blade will be razor sharp and have a nice polish. And now your sharpening media is probably measured in microns instead of grit. 1200 grit is 15 microns. Here is where you want two of these strops and a pair of Wicked Edge Stropping compounds in 14 microns and 10 microns. To give it a nice, ludicrously sharp edge and then finish off with a fine sapphire hone. The sapphire hone is just under 10 micron but it is a lot of work going from 1000/1200 grit to 2000 grit (10 micron). Which is why you want the strops and the compounds. The result is about as sharp as can be reasonably expected in most knives. In case you are not a reasonable person, you could also get 4 more of these leather strops and two more pairs of stropping compounds. These come in 5 micron/3.5 micron and 1 micron/0.5 micron. More than this and the compounds are spray on and go down to .025 microns. Why? Why not. Only the hardest steel or ceramic will hold that fine an edge. Way, way sharper then you would use for a straight razor. Maybe a specialized blade for taking slices for microscope samples. Blade sharpening has grown into a cult thing in recent years, in no small part due to the Lansky system itself.

Worked just like I wanted. I love the Lansky system and can always get my knives very sharp. With the white stone they are very sharp, but not like after I used the stropping hone. Really does make a difference I can see and feel. During use with the stropping hone I can see the blade changing to a mirrored finish. I just sharpened 7 knives this weekend and all of them shave hair easily when put to the test. Don't pay attention to people complaining about the size - it's the same size as other Lansky hones. Clearly those reviewers just think it's a strop and have no idea what the Lansky system is. Also, be careful to go the other way than the stone hones. ONLY USE GOING AWAY FROM THE BLADE. The product is exactly what I wanted and took my sharpening with the Lansky system to the next level.

Always heard that a leather strop was the best way to get knives really sharp but this thing is fricking awesome. It made my knife so sharp you can not only shave the hair on your arm but if you aren't careful you can shave the top layer of skin off. I would highly recomend it to anyone who is wanting to sharpen their knives to razor quality. I've done pocket knives so far but the wife has tasked me with sharpening the kitchen knives as well. On a side note be very careful when using this and ONLY go away from the blade, I took a small nick out of it but not completely picking it up on the upstroke and be careful near the tip of the blade can leave a small furrow in the strop. If it does get too chewed up I will just take the leather off and put a new piece on it.

I really like the diamond set, figured I would fill that last slot in the case with a strop. It works fine, but I think I would have been better off buying a larger 2 sided strop.