SHARPAL 205H Double-sided Leather Strop (Genuine Cowhide) 13.2" x 2.4" Kit with 2 Oz. Polishing Compound & Angle Guide, Knife Stropping Block for Sharpening & Honing Knives tools, Woodcarving Chisels

This flat base leather strop is an excellent finishing tool and easily one of the most useful additions to my sharpening setup. The included polishing compound is simple to apply and absorbs well into the leather. Once worked in, it makes a noticeable difference in honing the edge. After sharpening, the strop takes the blade from sharp to truly razor sharp. You can feel the refinement immediately. It cleans up the edge, removes any remaining burr, and leaves a smooth, precise finish that cuts effortlessly. The flat base design is a major advantage over a traditional belt strop. The added stability keeps everything controlled and consistent, which makes a big difference when working with very sharp blades. There is no flexing, slipping, or awkward angles to manage. Overall, this strop is well made, effective, and easy to use. It produces real results and feels safer and more reliable than hanging strops. Highly recommended for anyone serious about maintaining a razor sharp edge.

This made the difference in my knives being sharp to the touch and shaving hair. The trick is to spend some time on a quality stone resetting your edge on an angle guide that suits your needs (example: 25, 20, 17, 15 degree angles). Then, you gotta lock in that form and grind. Once you’ve gotten to the finer grits, use this strop with the compound and maintain that angle until you polish your bevel is shiny. Even the best knives require sharpening and this quality strop will perform that job. It seems to hold up well, but to minimize the abrasions to your strop and maximize you should consider moving the knife away from the cutting edge towards to spine.

First, you want to use this alongside a real sharpening solution. This isn't going to sharpen your knives, it's just going to polish the edge and make it nice and smooth. So get a whetstone or something else to actually sharpen your knives as a first step. As a polishing strop, I have no problem with this in terms of design or construction. It's well made, the leather feels fine and it has a rubber base so it doesn't slide around. It also fits perfectly into the top of the Sharpal whetstone kit for storage, which is kind of an unadvertised convenience feature. I'm taking a star off for the included polishing compound. Now, this could just be personal preference, but they include a "dry" compound that kind of goes onto the leather like a crayon. It feels just like that. In the pictures on the box, they show completely covering the leather in green compound, which is both really hard to do but also results in essentially what feels like a wax surface. It doesn't even feel like leather anymore. It does seem to work. My knife edges come out looking nice and shiny, so I guess it is removing whatever dust and other material is on the blades. It just has a very waxy, unsatisfying feel, and I'm not convinced it works better than "wet" compounds, or even no compound. The instructions do say that the leather itself is effective for polishing, so don't worry if you miss a spot with the compound. If I had to do it again, I'd probably still buy this but then get a wet compound separately for it. That's obviously an extra expense, though.

I have been using a leather strop that I acquired from an old barber shop several years ago. It recently became less than effective and I decided to upgrade to this two sided strop. The effect was immediate, and produced a very fine edge! Something about a good stopping session is quite comforting to me, and this one is especially nice!!

Well worth the money and very high quality. Everything I have bought from Sharpal has been on point. After sharpening a knife or two, I can also use it as a paddle to spank my kids. Just kidding, I dont have any kids. The grip fits firmly in your hand and I really don't need the Angle guide. This design allowes you to out an edge on any knife with great speed. You should buy two of them and give one as a gift!

Love it for honing, works well. Mounted on a board, so not chasing it like a loose strop.

Good, simple product that just works.

This is an excellent bargain, a great free-hand strop! The angle guide may be helpful for some, but learning to stope without it is not difficult since the green compound is very forgiving! The included compound could use a bit of an upgrade. It has nice soft leather and is designed well, it’s ergonomic and easy to use. and has a great price, This is highly recommended for your sharpening tool kit!!! I recommend getting two of them, even though they’re double sided having one for green compound, and one for white compound is very convenient. This leaves clean leather on the opposite side of each stope, and will avoid cross contamination of your compounds.