Black belt okay for strop?

C

Convectuoso07

Joined
Jun 30, 2010
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I have an old black leather belt - well, actually it's brand new and has a broken buckle - that will never be worn. I don't have a strop and thought I'd cannibalize the belt. Will the black dye or whatever it is be a problem?

Also, what's the preferred method for attaching it to the wood block?

Thanks much,
J
 
Having a blackbelt does no- wait...:D

It should work fine, i've used dyed leather before, no issues at all. infact, i hear belts make great strops. good luck!:thumbup:
 
I doubt if the black dye will be much of an issue. The nice thing about sacrificing an unused belt, is that you can experiment a bit with it, without worrying too much about wasting it.

If you have enough length in the belt, you could cut a couple or three sections and try different things with each piece. Use the smooth side of one, the rough side of another. Try some buffing/polishing compound (diamond/green/black) on another piece, if you like. As another option, I've gotten in the habit of sanding the smooth side of the leather with some 220 grit sandpaper. It gives the leather a real nice 'nap' (like velvet), and you can really feel the leather 'grab' the blade edge as you strop. Lots of extra surface area in contact with the edge. And the sanding might be a good idea anyway, if your belt has any type of plastic/waxy coating on it (some do). You want to expose the bare leather underneath, even if it is dyed black. The bare leather is where the silicates are (from the tanning process); they are what's doing the polishing of the metal.

As for attaching the leather to a piece of wood, you can use contact/rubber cement or, as I like to do, use some double-sided carpet tape. It's a fabric tape, the type WITHOUT the foam backing. You can find it at Home Depot/Lowe's, possibly at Walmart or other places. Comes in two or three different widths too, so finding some to best match the width of your belt & board shouldn't be too difficult. Very easy to do it this way, with a minimum of mess.
 
Convectuoso07 said:
I have an old black leather belt - well, actually it's brand new and has a broken buckle - that will never be worn. I don't have a strop and thought I'd cannibalize the belt. Will the black dye or whatever it is be a problem?

Also, what's the preferred method for attaching it to the wood block?

Thanks much,
J
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It will work, but won't be as good bare as vegetable tanned leather. I'd recommend putting compound on the black leather belt.
For belts they generally chrome tan them, and for a quality bare strop you'd want either horse butt or veggie tanned leather.
 
Leather belts (without stitching) can make pretty decent strops. I've made a few strops with a handle using Barge Cement and the paint stirrers for 5 gallon paint containers. They aren't in the same league with other strops I have made with premium veggie tanned leather or the one I bought from Hand American, but you can't beat the price and the fatter you are the more strops you can make out of your belt. :D
 
I had a strop mad out of a black belt and it worked fine. However, I went to Target and purchased a brown belt that felt more natural and had a suede side on the back. I think it cost me $12, made by Mossimo. Anyway, loaded it up with some green compound and it works so much better than the black belt. I can tell its actually working as it gets black from stropping whereas the black loaded belt never did. I think the treatment on it and the belt being so smooth kept it from really working the knife blade.
 
Okay so I cut the belt to size for my strop and was going to start sanding when I noticed a small thread sticking out of the suede side. I lifted it with my knife to find that the entire suede backing was fake, even though stamped "genuine leather." The top was vinyl and the main material the belt was made from looked like shredded, compressed tire rubber. I asked my wife where she bought this thing...a kiosk in the mall for 8 bucks. Nice.

So anyway, I went to Hobby Lobby and got two leather "bookmarks" for $2.50. Can't wait to put this thing together! Probably have to wait until Thursday though. Pics when it happens.
 
You know...one of my favorite belts I got for $5 at a Dollar Store. My step-daughter who is chronically short of money and not real picky about stuff shops there so I took her to get a bunch of stuff.

They had very simple leather belts with a brass buckle for $5. It is really pretty nice full grain leather and it has held up well. Just one piece of leather, no backing or ornamentation.

So you can get a pretty decent piece of leather that way without breaking the bank. Heck, the really nice toolable vegetable tanned leather blanks at Tandy are bou-coup bucks...line $20 or more. Now they are top notch tooling leather but still.

I have one of those leather bookmarks and I'll bet loaded up with compound on the sueded side, you'd have a decent strop.
 
I buy strips from Leather Factory (Tandy's) when they have them on sale. It ends up costing about $2 per strop depending upon the width and how long each strop is.

I use the 3" blanks to make my own 3x11 magnetic backed strops to fit the Hand American metal hone base. I get the adhesive backed magnetic sheets at a craft store and just cut them to size.
 
So I should use the suede side? All the pics I've seen of strops look like smooth leather. These aren't coated or anything. Just soft, natural tanned leather.
 
Convectuoso07 said:
So I should use the suede side? All the pics I've seen of strops look like smooth leather. These aren't coated or anything. Just soft, natural tanned leather.
Click to expand...

I think most folks prefer to use the smooth side, although some also like to use the back (rough) side. It sort of depends on the quality of the leather itself. Whichever side you use, you want it to be as uniform as possible. Sometimes the back (rough) side of the leather will have defects/divots/rougher spots that make it less than ideal for stropping.

Something I've grown to like, is to lightly sand the smooth side of the leather with some 220 grit sandpaper. This gives the leather a velvety 'nap', which really adds some 'grippiness' to the leather. You can really feel it working on the edge.

I'd recommend, over time, that you use 3 or 4 different pieces of leather and experiment with 'em. Use the smooth side of a couple (with and without compound), and maybe try the rough side of the others (again, with and without compound). You may find that you'll like different combinations for different situations/knives.
 
I've got two strips so I'll probably just make two and try both sides. I started making the paddle for one today from a piece of 1x2 poplar. I used a rasp to form a nice ergonomic handle. Can't wait to start sanding it smooth. I can't decide if I should stain and seal it or just leave it natural. We'll see when she's closer to finished. I'll post up another thread when it's done.
 
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