Yep, that's it. The green oxide may be available locally for you. It used to be available in places like Lowes. I see that Harbor Freight carries it. I see the strop you linked to is preloaded with compound. I think I would prefer to do it myself, but that's just me.dave77 wrote:
Is this what you're talking about:
https://www.amazon.com/Knives-Plus-Stro ... +strop+kit
https://www.amazon.com/Polishing-Compou ... B076X3LNQ3
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-4-quart ... 96778.html
Be careful stropping. It's easy to over do. You can dub (round over) the edge by stropping too long, or at too steep an angle, or too much pressure on the leather, which in effect makes it too steep an angle. A light touch at about the same angle as the bevel, and just a few strokes gets the job done. A little judicious stropping can take an edge from sharp to OMG. Also, it's important to keep the strop free of stray grit. Once a piece of grit gets embedded in the strop, it's almost impossible to remove it, and the grit will scratch the blade every time it passes over that area.
If you have access to reasonably priced leather, it is easy enough to make your own strop. Just glue a strip down to a piece of wood and load it with buffing compound. Make sure it's nice and flat.
The other thing to consider is how sharp do I need this edge to be? For woodworking tools, the sharper the better. The finer the final grit and smoother the edge, the easier it is to work with, and the longer the edge will last. For a kitchen knife, many professionals prefer not to go to the finest abrasives. They find that something like 600 - 800 grit gives them a little bit rougher edge that serves them better cutting things like ripe tomatoes and such. In effect it gives them mini serrations. The edge probably won't last quite so long, but it is more useful to their needs.
Let me add that I am reasonably conversant in sharpening woodworking tools, but knives are something I have not seriously gotten into. There is definitely a transference here, I can easily put an arm shaving edge on any non serrated knife in the kitchen, but I don't know a lot of the ins and outs of knife sharpening. Right now I am stoning on a 750 grit Smith's diamond plate that I picked up on clearance years ago. It is well worn, but still cuts. I finish off with a steel, which I also use to refresh the edge between sharpenings. If I have a really dull, or damaged bevel, I take the knife out to the shop and use my scary sharp system to repair the edge. Scary sharp is just sandpaper glued to a flat granite surface. Pick the grit you need and replace the sheet when it gets dull. There's no periodic flattening of the stones, and none of the mess and waiting for stones to soak, or cleaning up honing oil.