Honing - Stropping A Kitchen Knife Is The Reverse Of Steeling A Kitchen Knife

In the last couple of blog posts I have been discussing the subject of honing and/or sharpening your kitchen knives using any number of honing rod types from the standard grooved steel to the ceramic steel and the newest in technology the diamond coated sharpening steel which in conjunction with  a quality professional grade ceramic sharpening rod I can and you can get your kitchen knives razor sharp on the fly.

Honing is a very important step in kitchen knife maintenance as it will allow your primary cutting edge to remain in top cutting condition for up to twice as long as if you were not honing your kitchen knives at all! If you don't have a honing steel or sharpening rod you can strop your knives frequently in between full on knife sharpening treatments. Knife strops come in many forms and knives can be stropped in many ways and on many mediums.

Knife stropping is a double edged form of knife maintenance as it works to keep a knife honed and, because honing your kitchen knife removes metal from the blade it is also a form of sharpening. If you don't have a honing rod or a sharpening rod then you could strop your kitchen knives to a razor edge with very little trouble or effort on your part. (See Video)


You can strop your knife on a plain piece of leather,(See Video) or you can strop your knife on a piece of leather that has been charged with either a spray abrasive, a powder abrasive or paste/wax type abrasive. You can strop a knife on a piece of wood, a piece of cardboard or on a old slack belt charged or not charged with the very same abrasives as mentioned above. (see the video) Any of these types of stropping will work in honing and sharpening your knives to razor nirvana! To an extent stropping serves the same purpose as steeling a knife on a rod and that is to realign the cutting edge of your blade. The method is basically the same but, the position of the strop and knife are different.

As a side note some of the really hard steels that are coming out of Japan like ZDP189 or CPM-10V, CPM-S125sv from Crucible Particle Metallurgy which all are at least a Rockwell C Scale of 63+ and as high as 65+ will not respond honing on a rod or on a strop! In cases like this you will have to find someone or some company that makes custom honing rods made of something called Borosilicate Glass rod or a quality professional ceramic sharpening rod both of which have a Rockwell testing that is in the 80's.

Honing a kitchen knife by stropping it is really good for steels in the Rockwell 62 and less hardness range as the abrasives will take hold of the steel and remove the proper amounts of metal to give you a glowing polished and deadly sharp razor keen edge if you have done everything else right up to that point! Know this: If you are going to be stropping your kitchen knife of a piece of leather or cardboard that is charged with an abrasive you will not actually be realigning your kitchen knifes edge, you will actually be removing metal from the edge and that constitutes sharpening your kitchen knife!

Stropping is the reverse of knife steeling. In other words when you steel a knife you are moving the knife downward from the top of the steel toward the handle guard of the rod. When you strop your knife you are moving the knife in a backward motion away from you and then bringing the spine of the knife back toward you in reverse motion. (see video) The one constant that both methods of honing/sharpening a knife have is that you do not over pressure your strokes! Light pressure, let the medium do the work for you! Match your edge angle to the medium and take your time! Stropping is a wonderful thing to do after a full on sharpening treatment for the micro beveling and and final polishing of your kitchen knives.

If you have never stropped you kitchen knives before and you are really into knives, not just kitchen knives but sporting knives of all kinds then you need to learn how to strop your knives as you will increase the edge quality of your blades and the performance of those blades will be superior!

There are benefits to steeling and stropping your kitchen knives and the quickest one is that it is the easiest and fastest honing/sharpening method that you can employ to enhance, extend and maintain your kitchen knives and sporting knives as well! In all the years I have been in the cutlery business it always amazes me the shear number of professionals and non-professional chefs and gourmet home chefs alike don't strop or don't know how to properly steel or strop a kitchen knife. If you have followed along these last three blog posts with me then you know how and that puts you way above the curve!

For the optimal performance of  your valuable kitchen knives I highly recommend that you  steel and strop your knives before and after each use! OK! if you don't want to do it before each use then at least do it after each use of  your knives and I promise that your kitchen knives will give you cutting performance twice as long as if you never steeled or stropped your kitchen knives at all!