Xinzuo Knife Sharpening Leather Strop

The Xinzuo Knife Sharpening Leather Strop is a double-sided stropping paddle made for high-end kitchen knives, built to refresh sharpness and improve edge finish between full sharpening sessions. It combines a fine-grained North American walnut base with vegetable-tanned cowhide for a stable, comfortable tool you can use at home for quick, consistent edge maintenance.

This strop gives you two working surfaces so you can tune the result depending on what your knife needs. The KOYO green face is designed for faster edge restoration and is pre-coated with abrasive paste, making it ready to use on arrival. The leather cowhide side is marked 10000# and is intended for fine polishing - great for refining the edge, removing light burr remnants, and improving the smoothness of the cut.

About “grit” on a strop: leather itself does not have a grit like a whetstone. The “10000#” rating is best read as a finish level the stropping surface is aimed to produce, and the actual cutting action comes from the surface condition and any abrasive compound used. In practice, the green side works like a more active stropping step for touch-ups, while the leather side behaves like a high-finish stage for polishing and cleanup.

The large stropping surface helps keep your angle steady and makes it easier to strop longer edges. Product parameters shown include a 205 mm working length and 65 mm width, with 340 mm overall length, 18 mm thickness, and 265 g net weight for a solid, stable feel during use.

Use it to maintain kitchen knives after regular cooking prep, especially when the edge starts to feel less “bitey” but doesn’t yet need a full stone sharpening. For best results, strop in controlled passes and always move the blade in a spine-leading direction (pulling the blade so the edge trails) to avoid cutting into the leather.

Care instructions:

Keep the strop clean and dry. After use, wipe the surface with a soft cloth to remove metal residue - especially on the green face where compound can pick up swarf. Store in a dry place and avoid soaking or washing the leather with water.

Use light pressure and a consistent angle. Always strop edge-trailing (spine-first) and avoid pushing the edge into the leather. If you notice compound transferring to the blade from the green face, wipe the blade clean before moving to the leather finishing side.

The green face is pre-coated and ready to use. If either side becomes glazed or loaded with residue over time, clean gently with a dry cloth and continue with lighter strokes - the goal is refinement and deburring, not heavy material removal.