Built a strop/Need recommendation

BluegrassBrian

BluegrassBrian

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Apr 20, 2015
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Dismayed at the price of many production strops I decided to build my own.
I got a plank of inch thick pine, cut it down to 14" x 5.5". Glued on some 8oz leather from Tandy. Just what I wanted.

I think I'm going to leave one side unloaded. On the other side I want to apply a compound.

What are some compounds that yall can recommend as a finishing step? Something that will polish the edge and give it a super fine finish.
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1 micron Diamond for knives, 0.5 micron Chromium oxide for razors.

FYI, that leather won't do much without compound.
 
Thanks for the tip Jason.
is there a particular brand of 1 micron diamond you like?

Ed: seems like dmt is the most popular
 
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Handamerican, DMT, or Richmond (CKTG house brand) all work well. Hand American Spray is probably the best IMO.
 
Just my thoughts but you may find the width of your strop to be tedious with some types of blades. If you decide to make a narrower example what i did was i bought a 18" table leg from home depot and unscrewed the dowel at the end and replaced it with an eyelet screw to secure a lanyard. Then i cut the leather into strips and glued them to make afour sided strop. That eay you can isolate different grit compounds and have a narrower work area that is essential for some blade shapes. I use red green white and grey compounds from some guy on ebay who molds his own and they work great. So far no lead poisoning.
 
I have a much smaller strop too..suppose you'd call it a field strop. Its only about 2.5 inches wide, so between the two I think I'm covered.
 
i ended up making my own strops,made two of the same size 13 1/2 x 1 1/2 to use with two compounds! one with green and the other with red rouge,they work fine as i really find most others like sprays ect are not needed for proper maint. with day to day stropping.
 
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