casing leather for a strop myself

[awestib]

Due to the never ending quest to the ultimate or rather complete set of different strops (paper on stone with slurry, HeavyHanded's washboard, bluntcut's balanced strop, balsa wood, bass wood etc.), I have been tinkering with/thinking about leather strops once again.

Inspired by all the great posts from our BF member Stitchawl (and an additional email yesterday) about the right leather for the job, making your own leather strop and casing the leather etc., I went and bought a long 2 inch wide strip of heavy vegetable tanned cowhide. It was about 4-5 mm thick, quite dense and even but the clerk at the store could really not tell me anything about the treatment of this leather. So I decided to do the casing myself. Between job, wife, kids and own-time, I did not really have the time today but I did it anyway. I wetted the leather for a few seconds in water, let it sit for an hour and started rolling it with a rolling pin for as long as I could. In reality probably only 20 min max. I used my hands, my feet (standing on the rolling pin), everything I had. Besides an exhausting workout that I would not want to repeat, I was quite surprised with the result.

I was able to decrease the thickness of the leather by 1-2 mm quite evenly actually. From the side, the leather looks much denser too. I will let it dry for a day or two and will make a few strops from it with different compounds.

My point is, now that I know how much you can change a leather to make a better strop, I wonder how much work (if any) actually goes into those prefab leather strops that we can buy everywhere. If I had a machine that could do the rolling for me longer and maybe with more pressure and more evenly, that would be awesome. I wonder if I could actually send leather strips somewhere for this exact reason? Or, should I buy a good quality leather strop from Chefknivestogo for instance. They offer a bovine strop 3x11 for $15. I wonder if those need after market processing as well for that price?

Any suggestions/comments appreciated!

 

[Sadden]

You can get high pressure rollers specifically for that.

Most of the cheap ones ( stropman , flex , flexcut ) seem to come as-is. Certaintly none of them make any mention of processing on any of their websites.

I cant tell you about the bovine/equine strops from CKTG having never used them. However the Roo needs no additional processing to make a high quality strop and the cost there comes from having young , thin , high quality hides hand selected all the way back at the leather retailer.

 

[stitchawl]

Thanks for the kind words, awestib. I appreciate them.
Two points;
First, to cause silicate migration needed for a strop to be used without compound, it's actually better to 'pound' the leather than to roll it, but that's really, really difficult to do and still get the smooth, even consistency to the surface. Rolling works very well, just not as well.
Second, unless you buy your pre-made strops from a long-established tonsorial supply (read: barber equipment,) the chance are good that the strop you buy will just have a pretty piece of leather slapped on to a pretty piece of wood. While there are one or two places that do pay attention to the leather in the strops they sell, most do not. Unless I'm mistaken, Chefsknivestogo sell the 'HandAmerican' strops, and Keith does take a keen interest in the leather products he sells. I've bought dozens from him in the past, and with only one or two exceptions, all have been top quality.

When buying from other knife supply companies, an easy way to tell (with fair accuracy) the quality of the leather they sell is by their strop advertising copy. Do they spend more time talking about the fancy base material used, the special compounds that come with it, or the leather that goes into them? You can see where the time and concern lie. As you've seen, it only takes minutes to make a very high quality piece of leather into a useful strop. If you want a fancy base, you can always add one. Personally. I like a length of 3" or 4" wide MDF board out of the scrap bin. It ain't pretty, but it works as well as Birdseye Maple or African Rosewood.


Stitchawl

 

[buckman110]

I got some leather this evening from a friend and im gonna make afew strops . plain and flexcut gold and green blitz compounds. I was considering what leingth and with to make. I was thinking to put it on blocks. Ive used a half inch by 22" strop plain for years and its been a great one. Produces a mirror edge every time.

 

[David Martin]

When I did my strops I glued them to the 2x4x15" board then used oil to soften and stacked weighs on it. Leaving it over night. This produced a nice hard leather surface. Not spongy like the kind you buy. Then I treated it with the slurry, you desire. This also allowed for a better bond. DM