Buying a Strop.

I made a couple of strops with the leather from handamerican.com when they were still around. Also snagged one of their glass smooth steels too, to align edges between sharpenings. The leather is very hard. Not much give to it at all. I got some of the very fine powder they sold too. I think it was aluminum oxide, but I could be wrong.

I mounted both pieces of leather to blocks of pine with epoxy. They're both about 12" long by 3.5" wide. I keep one with the powder on it and one just bare leather. I even got a little fancy and glued rubber feet under all four corners.

After I sharpen, I run the edge on the one with the dust, then the dry one. Comes out hair-whittling sharp, and NOT convex (Although, it wouldn't bother me one bit if it was convex. Sharp is sharp).

Cost me all of about five bucks.
 
stitchawl said:
Hey, I don't doubt that for a minute. There have been more than enough positive reviews of it to assure me that it is a well-made, reliable and effective product. But with its touted 'soft leather,' I have to conclude that it is better for convex edges than flat grind. A lot of people prefer that sort of edge, and it's MUCH easier to maintain than a flat one. Convex edge stropping is certainly more 'forgiving.' Me? I like a flat grind. Takes a bit more care to do it right, but, again, for me, the results are worth it.

If someone wants to shell out money for a strop, this one certainly isn't thrown-away money. But $2 worth of leather and 5¢ worth of compound for $29.95 (or what ever the price is,) to me, seems excessive. On the other hand, I've spent a lot of money in my time on things that other folks consider a waste too. Had the company spent more time compressing the leather rather than cramming in so much compound (there is a lifetime's worth of compound in those strops! LOL!,) I'd probably like it better. I just believe that people can get a MUCH BETTER strop for much less money. Nothing more.


Stitchawl
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Hi Stitch. As knife diet wrote above, the leather starts as soft chap leather, but it is then cased very well. I do not make convex edges with the Strop Block. It is a very firm and fairly "hard" strop, very suited for V edges.
 
Stitch if I recalled correctly, has a lot of experience making hard leather strop that has less rounding effect to edges. Visit the strop sticky, his method is posted there. Whether one wants to use a soft or hard strop is a choice as long as the method is understood.

To OP,

I'd suggest read the sticky on stropping & experiment some. Also for starters, I'd recommend Heavy Handed Washboard system which is a sharpener & strop all in one. Here's a recent review: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...hand-sharpening-system-first-impression/page2
This Washboard belongs to hard strop variety.

Both him & Stitch posts have been invaluable in my learning process, but as they say ' there's many ways to skin a cat'.
I have used both Washboard strop & leather (not cast, so has some give), and depending on the steel, compound & pressure, one can work better than the other.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
Hi Stitch. As knife diet wrote above, the leather starts as soft chap leather, but it is then cased very well. I do not make convex edges with the Strop Block. It is a very firm and fairly "hard" strop, very suited for V edges.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm..... I don't see anything in their description that indicated that the leather has been compressed, much less cased and compressed. Looking at it I see, right after the mention that of using soft chap leather, that the first thing they do is glue it down to particle board.
"We use contact cement to glue this leather down to a 2 1/2" X 8" (approximately) particle board base. When the glue is dry, we raise the leather's nap by scraping with a razor blade to allow the polish to penetrate the leather and give it a "bite" when used."

Now, you and I both know what happens if you get particle board even damp, right? Not a good thing... So obviously they aren't casing the leather. That requires getting it wet and leaving it so the water permeates through the leather. Can't do that when it's been glued to particle board. So nothing about casing, and nothing about compressing. They go from gluing right to scraping off the most dense layer of the hide to allow more of their compound to penetrate.

Next they rub it with a rolled rag? But that's not to compress the leather. That's to force more compound into it.
"We smear and work this preparation into the leather surface with a hard rolled shop rag until the surface of the strop is thoroughly saturated and coated."

Please try a test, if you will, and let me know the results. Using your thumb nail and just a little bit of pressure, see if you can indent the leather enough to leave a mark. Let me know the results. If you can dent the leather with a thumb nail, it's, in MY OPINION (only) too soft for a good leather strop to be used for flat grind stropping. Again... this is MY OPINION only. Others may disagree. But none of the strops that I use will dent under light pressure from a thumb nail, nor should any 'good quality' barber strop. Shell Cordovan horsehide won't dent with heavy pressure from a thumb nail.

I'm not saying that people can't get good results from this commercial strop. I know that they can. I know that you do.
It's just not something that "I" want to use when I strop. I want a firm surface that will not compress and possibly compromise my edges.
It would be like using the corner a flat-head screwdriver to turn a Phillips head screw... Yeah, you can make it work, but it's not optimal.


Stitchawl
 
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