Bacher Leather Strop – 32 cm, Knife Sharpening Paddle, 4 Compounds & Balm

Description

• AFTER THE STONE: Sharpening leaves a burr – a fragile wire edge that folds over on the first cut, which is why a knife feels keen for a day and then stops biting. Stropping aligns and polishes that edge rather than grinding it away, so the bevel comes up clean and mirror-bright and the edge holds longer between sharpenings. Ten to twenty light passes after your finest stone is enough. Far less steel comes off than a stone takes, so you can strop a kitchen knife every week for years without shortening its life.
• 3 MM COWHIDE, FSC BEECH: Hand-made in Poland from full-grain cowhide, tanned with tree bark in the Podhale region to a recipe used there since the 17th century, and left a full 3 mm (1/8 in) thick. Thickness decides the result: thin, soft hide sinks under the blade and rounds the very apex you are trying to refine. The paddle is 20 mm of solid Carpathian beech (Fagus sylvatica) from FSC-certified forests, licence FSC C170599, so the surface stays dead flat instead of flexing. Total 320 x 60 mm (32 x 6 cm, 12.6 x 2.36 in) with a 206 x 56 mm working face – a chef's knife crosses it in one stroke.
• READY IN A MINUTE: Spread a compound on the hide with one of the five wooden applicators supplied – around 1 g covers one side, so a 7 g pot is good for about seven coats. Most people put White 5000 on the rough side and Green 8000 on the smooth side, then keep one side bare for the last few strokes. Pull the blade backwards, spine first, under light pressure, at the same angle you sharpened at or a fraction shallower. A step-by-step eBook guide comes with the set (QR code on the box), so your first blade is not a guess.
• KNIVES, CHISELS, RAZORS: One strop for the whole workbench – kitchen and chef's knives, pocket, hunting and bushcraft blades, whittling knives, wood carving gouges and V-tools, bench chisels, plane irons, scissors, and straight razors for wet shaving. The 56 mm face takes a plane iron flat; the paddle shape and drilled handle let you hold it in the air for carving tools, or hang it over the bench when you are done. If a blade needs a keen edge, it can be stropped here.
• FOUR GRITS PLUS BALM: Four 7 g compounds are included – Red approx. 2000 (medium), White 5000 (fine), Green 8000 (very fine), Black 12000 (ultra fine) – so you work down through the grits instead of jumping to a single polishing paste. Every one of them carries lanolin and beeswax: the pastes are not only abrasive, they nourish and soften the hide at every stropping and keep it from drying out and cracking. Top up roughly every 30 to 50 sharpenings; after 300 to 500 sand back to bare leather and start again. The 7 g balm is the same care, concentrated – use it every one to two years, even if the strop has been resting. Arrives in a printed presentation box.