Angerstone Oversize Double Sided Leather Strop Kit(3" Knife Stropping Leather）with Ergonomic Handle - Knife Strop for Sharpening Knives, Wood Carving Chisels, Buffing Compound Included

This is a very well made strop. Plenty of width for sharpening longer wood carving knives, especially the critical tip. Plenty of length for getting a good long stroke which is particularly helpful when doing gouges. Nice thick leather on both sides. One leather side has excellent knap for holding sharpening compound. The other side is hard and smooth leather for the final finish. Wood handle is nicely finished. Use this properly and you have no excuse for dull knives and gouges!

The first “kit” I received did not include the two polishing compound sticks, so I returned it for a replacement, which did come with all of the pieces. The 14.3” x 3“ strop was nicely finished and assembled. The rough and fine leather pads each appear to be uniformly finished. After honing several wood chisels, I am pleased with the results and the kit seems fine for my needs. While I have experience sharpening with stones and diamond plates, I am new to honing. Unfortunately, I found the enclosed instructions confusing and of little use. Fortunately, there’s lot of videos out there on the subject. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, there’s a lot of debate about every aspect of honing.The wood block base of the strop caught my eye, as it was made of two pieces of quarter sawn pine glued together, a nice and unexpected feature which should provide a more rigid base for the leather pads. The strop set flat on my bench top, with no wobble.Regarding the included instructions: the product is made in China, so the instructions may reflect some interesting translations, as might the brand name. Neither the product listing on Amazon or the instructions indicate the grit level of the included honing compounds, but a related ad indicated that the white compound is a coarse grit and the green compound is a fine grit. I could not find any reference to the manufacturer’s website for more info.Here’s a quick view of my experience. Despite what is shown in the product video with the Amazon ad, every other source I have seen shows that honing on leather is a one way affair. The sharp edge of the tool should always be facing in the opposite direction of the honing stroke. Starting at one end of a leather pad, drag the sharp edge of the tool across the strop lengthwise while applying light pressure, lift the tool at the end of the stroke, set the tool back down on the beginning end of the pad, repeat. Never lead with the sharp edge into the leather as that will either shave the leather, dull the edge, and/or gouge the leather. Do several strokes with the coarse grit on the rough leather pad, then move to the smooth leather pad and the fine grit.As far as the honing angle, the general rule seems to be to stay with the angle established by the previous sharpening steps. It seems that most people hone tools freehand, but I might try using the guide that I use with my diamond sharpening plates for a more consistent angle.I sharpened the chisels down to 2000 grit on diamond plates prior to honing. Initially I was making 30 honing strokes on each of the two grits, on both the back of each tool (wood chisels) and on the angled face, for a total of 120 stokes per tool. Probably more than needed. There are likely too many variables (grit, hardness, pressure, edge width, red state / blue state, etc.) to make hard rules about the number of strokes needed, but the goal seems to be a mirror finish. I reapplied polishing compound after every two or three chisels, not sure if that is correct, but too much would seem to be more effective than too little. If I feel the need, apparently I can upgrade to higher quality polishing compounds for a more uniform and longer lasting grit.While honing the wood chisels in the direction of the handle. I noticed that sometimes the handle would tip down, as the leather pads are thicker than the wood handle. Maybe it was due to my honing technique, but I decided to stop the tipping. I glued a 3/4 inch square of wood, as thick as the leather pad, near the handle hole, on each side of the handle. And finally, be careful - those honed edges are extremely sharp.

First off let me say that if you truly wanna "properly" finish a Knife Edge, that finishing the bevel with a Strop IS THE WAY TO GO. I have gone up to the 6,000-10,000 grit stones if efforts of getting rid of that last bit of burrs, and its a pain. BUT, if you simply grab your Strop and put some compound on it, doesn't take much compound, or sharpening efforts really, but the process of finishing with a Strop, THAT is how you get that FINE FINE MIRROR Polish, and remove the burrs and get that razor sharp finish. So much easier to just use some Compound or Polish on the Strop after the 3,000-5,000 grit stones Beautiful Finish, Every time.I haven't gotten a chance to use it personally just yet as it arrived yesterday (at the time of writing this review) But mine DID come with the green and white compounds. I saw a handful of reviews stating that theirs didn't arrive with the compounds, but mine did. Just in the bottom of the bag with a small plastic case containing them, along with some "instructions".I do wanna write in my review that the White Compound is the more "coarse" grit, and the Green Compound is the Finer grit. I couldn't find that information just flat out. I did see listed that the White Compound is 18 microns, and the Green Compound is 3 microns. Some folks might not know what that means, so I thought I would share. It is a learning process that takes time, so dumbing things down a bit helps folks that are starting out.While I have not used the Strop myself personally just yet, what I can say is that I have no doubt that it will perform wonderfully and without issue, and probably for a long time, if taken care of properly. I honestly think at the time of writing this review, that this Strop and Compound package is probably one of the BEST Strop combo deals and Strops on Amazon. Very very nice quality paddle style Strop and the Leather seems of decent quality. The Leather is firmly and completely glued onto the paddle and it does not appear that the Leather would peel off of the paddle anytime soon and appears that it shouldn't have any issues lasting years with proper use and handling.Personally I think the size of this Strop is just about the perfect size for most pocket knifes, kitchen knifes, and other household items like scissors. There are some pretty HUGE and also pretty small Strops out there, I think this one is in that perfect Goldie Locks size range.Yeah, you could probably make one of these yourself, but for the price, its hard to beat.The Strop's construction is very nice, the Leather is nice and thick and looks like it is of quality and will last a good while. The quality of the compound "might" not turn out to the best the best of the best for compounds, but if you are going as far as adding or doing a Strop and Compound to your sharpening routine, than you already know that its not so much the quality of the compound that makes the sharpening and polishing, its more about your technique, and that it doesn't take anything super special with a Leather Strop and some Compound to achieve positive results, "if you're doing it right".And technique is something that some folks spend years perfecting. I know that I myself am still "mastering" my sharpening skills, and have been working on them for a good 25+ years and I'm still making progress and improving.(4 stars just because I haven't officially used it yet. And, If it falls apart or any significant usage issues arise, this review WILL be updated)