HUB 02 · Sharpening
How to Strop a Knife
The finishing move most people skip. Stropping removes the last burr and aligns the edge to hair-splitting sharp — and you can do it on a leather belt.
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Stropping is the step between "sharp" and "scary sharp," and it's the one most people skip. After you've sharpened on a stone, the edge still has a microscopic burr— a wire of metal folded along the edge — plus tiny irregularities. Stropping removes that burr and aligns and polishes the very apex, leaving a noticeably keener, cleaner edge. You don't need special gear: a leather strop is ideal, but a leather belt or a piece of denim works. Here's the method.
Step by step
How to do it
- 01
Understand what stropping does
Stropping is not sharpening — it removes almost no metal. It strips off the leftover burr from sharpening and polishes/aligns the apex, taking an edge from sharp to refined. It's the finishing step after a stone, and a light touch-up between sharpenings. If a knife is genuinely dull, strop won't fix it — it needs a stone first.
- 02
Get a strop (or a stand-in)
A dedicated leather strop is best, but the smooth back of a leather belt, or even a folded piece of denim or thick cardboard on a flat surface, works. Lay a hanging strop taut or set a bench strop on the counter. Optional: rub a little stropping compound (a fine polishing abrasive) into the leather for faster, keener results.
- 03
Set the same edge angle
Lay the blade on the strop at the same angle you sharpened it — roughly 15–20° per side. Keeping that angle is just as important here as on a stone; too high and you round the edge, too low and you never touch the apex.
- 04
Stroke edge-TRAILING (spine first)
This is the critical rule: on a strop you move the knife SPINE-first, dragging the edge backward across the leather — the opposite of sharpening. If you push edge-first you'll cut into the strop and roll the edge. Draw the whole blade, heel to tip, backward along the strop with light pressure.
- 05
Alternate sides, light and even
Flip the knife and strop the other side with the same edge-trailing stroke, alternating sides. Use light, even pressure — the leather does the work. Ten to twenty passes per side is plenty for a finishing strop; a few per side is enough as a between-sharpenings touch-up.
- 06
Test the edge
Check with the paper or arm-hair test (see how to tell if a knife is sharp). A properly stropped edge should feel noticeably keener and cleaner than it did straight off the stone. If a burr is still catching, a few more light alternating passes will clear it.
Questions
Frequently asked
What does stropping a knife do?
Stropping removes the microscopic burr left by sharpening and polishes and aligns the very edge, taking a knife from sharp to refined. It removes almost no metal — it's a finishing step after a stone, and a light touch-up between sharpenings. It can't sharpen a genuinely dull knife.
Which direction do you strop a knife?
Edge-trailing — you move the knife spine-first, dragging the edge backward across the leather, the opposite of sharpening. Pushing edge-first cuts into the strop and rolls the edge. Alternate sides with light pressure.
Can you strop a knife on a leather belt?
Yes — the smooth back of a leather belt makes a fine improvised strop, as does folded denim or thick cardboard. A little stropping compound rubbed in speeds it up and gives a keener finish, but plain leather works.
Do I need stropping compound?
No, but it helps. Plain leather aligns and lightly polishes the edge; adding a fine stropping compound makes it cut faster and finish keener. For routine between-sharpenings touch-ups, bare leather is fine.
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We do not run a test kitchen, and we do not pretend to. Specs are the manufacturer's published figures, attributed as such; where we could not verify something, we say so on the page rather than quietly leaving it out. Read our full method.