demo: how to build you own strop

Which side of the leather are you using? I always thought it was the more raw, unfinished side, and not the smooth side.

Lets say it is a belt, just for an example, would you use the finished part showing on the outside, or the raw, grainy inside parts.

On my stop, similar to yours i use the inside, with green chromium. The more I use it, its starting to form like little balls or tiny little spots that stick up where my edge sometimes catches. Sometimes i purposely let the edge catch pushing in, so i know i have reached the correct blade angle. Then i start my stroke pulling away.

I get good results, but maybe the outside is better.

Great thread,

-Ross
 
Funny. I just made my first one last night. I thought I read somewhere NOT to glue it to the wood. Something about allowing the leather to stretch while stropping?

Glue it down for a bench strop. Do not glue it to the wall for a hanging strop.

If you are using enough pressure to stretch leather, you're pressing waaaay too hard!

Most high quality strops are made from 7-8oz. vegetable tanned leather. (And only vegetable tanned leather. Cowhide is good, horsehide even better. But always vegetable tanned.) 7-8oz. leather is almost twice as thick as regular shoe leather. Normally, you have to take your shoes to a shoemaker to have him stretch the leather using a screw-form and a lot of pressure.

2oz chrome tanned glove leather will stretch easily. The person here who wrote that he preferred chrome tanned leather also said his leather stretched. This is WHY his leather stretched... He is happy with his strops. He is also the only person I've heard about who prefers chrome tanned leather. Everyone else prefers vegetable tanned leather glued to a block. It's important to do what makes you happy. :)

Stitchawl
 
Which side of the leather are you using? I always thought it was the more raw, unfinished side, and not the smooth side.

For convex edges you can use the rougher side and get away with it. That produces a nice edge. For flat edges please use the smooth side of the leather for a better edge. You can use the rough side, but you will begin to convex the apex of the edge that way. The smooth side, using very light pressure will produce a much finer edge.

On my stop, similar to yours i use the inside, with green chromium. The more I use it, its starting to form like little balls or tiny little spots that stick up where my edge sometimes catches. Sometimes i purposely let the edge catch pushing in, so i know i have reached the correct blade angle. Then i start my stroke pulling away.

That's a good way to learn the correct angle. After a while you won't need to do that any more.

I get good results, but maybe the outside is better.

Much better.
:thumbup:


Stitchawl
 
I have been touching it up on the EF stone. Then using green compound. This is the first time I went through the 3 DMT pastes.

Wow, it looks great!

So you went from factory edge to EF, to green and then pastes?
 
Wow, it looks great!

So you went from factory edge to EF, to green and then pastes?

I had been touching it up using the EF stones and then green compound. Before I got that stone I was using the UF Spyderco rods. But last night was the first time I went through all the DMT pastes on a strop with it.
 
I've been using balsa with the DMT pastes, and it works pretty well. I have a question, though: I seem to make better progress if I use a back-and-forth blade motion: pushing, just as on a benchstone, then moving back towards the spine. Occasionally the edge will bite on the push and bring up a sliver of balsa; no big deal.

Am I doing this all wrong?
 
I've been using balsa with the DMT pastes, and it works pretty well. I have a question, though: I seem to make better progress if I use a back-and-forth blade motion: pushing, just as on a benchstone, then moving back towards the spine. Occasionally the edge will bite on the push and bring up a sliver of balsa; no big deal.

Am I doing this all wrong?


No, only half wrong... :o
And not 'wrong' so much as 'improperly.' When stropping, the motion is traditionally from the spine to the edge rather than as when using a stone and cutting into the grit. But... if you are happy with your results, go for it! This is a hobby, not military school.
It might be a good idea to try just using the spine-to-edge a bit though, and see if you prefer those results. I know I do. :thumbup:

Stitchawl
 
The back and forth method works better on hard wood.
 
No, only half wrong... :o
And not 'wrong' so much as 'improperly.' When stropping, the motion is traditionally from the spine to the edge rather than as when using a stone and cutting into the grit. But... if you are happy with your results, go for it! This is a hobby, not military school.
It might be a good idea to try just using the spine-to-edge a bit though, and see if you prefer those results. I know I do. :thumbup:

Stitchawl

You have a capacity for kindness that often surprises me, given some of the arguments I've seen you in stichawl. :thumbup:
 
Nice job!!
Stitchawl
thanks man!

Nice, thanks for sharing this with us!
you're welcome, thanks. I had fun doing this
Nice job zyhano. Does the DMT paste work good on and last on leather? I thought you were to use it on hard wood. That's what I have been using and I just don't like the way it feels while stroping. I would much rather use leather.
thanks, I see in your next posts that the leather worked just fine :thumbup:
Knifenut has a lot of good stuff to tell about hardwood. I haven't used paste on wood, only Cr2O3 and have used it on chisels, that worked fine. I'll be trying it out on wood later this year, I have enough on my hands already ;)
Great job! Very informative.
thanks JD
Very nice :)

Prime, balsa will give you a similar feel to leather and still keep the compound working fast. Using it on leather will slow it down some and make its finish finer.
thanks knifenut. I'll just stick to the leather then... any reason why I definitely should try out wood?

Great compilation zyhano.
thanks my man!
I couldn't find any balsa in my area and I have some leather left over from making my other strops so I guess I'll try this way. My understanding is that the DMT paste doesn't dry into the leather. So how do you store your strops when not in use? Do you put them in plastic bags like DMT suggests with hardwood strops?
No bags for me, I do store them in a relatively dust free environment and make sure to keep them clean. If there is dirt on it, you're fingers can easily feel it, there are a LoT of nerves in your fingers...
OMG! I made some new strops using zyhano's method for my DMT paste and got way better results much faster than with hardwood. Maybe it's just the way I strop. But this is what I did to my Insingo.
Hair doesn't stand a chance. :D
That's great, I actually inspired someone hehehe, nice job prime77
Cool, thanks for sharing! ;)
you're welcome friend
Great job and great post.
Love the many pictures you made.
I need to buy some leather and try making my own!
Yeah, it was a spur of the moment thing. Had a good time and when I took the first picture I just thought "what the heck, let's do this as good as I can"
Nice job Z!!!
thanks :thumbup:
That looks great.
Did you hit the diamond stones first and, if so, what order did you progress through, including the paste?
Hey peppercorn, I know you asked prime77, but here is something I wrote about going throught the grits, you might find it informative: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=769089 It's about getting a hinderer xm-18 hair whittling sharp.
Funny. I just made my first one last night. I thought I read somewhere NOT to glue it to the wood. Something about allowing the leather to stretch while stropping?
Yeah, that's by Nozh2002. He prefers it like that. It's just what you prefer. wood with glued leather, not glued, hanging, doesn't matter because you can get the same results on all of them.
Which side of the leather are you using? I always thought it was the more raw, unfinished side, and not the smooth side.
On my stop, similar to yours i use the inside, with green chromium. The more I use it, its starting to form like little balls or tiny little spots that stick up where my edge sometimes catches. Sometimes i purposely let the edge catch pushing in, so i know i have reached the correct blade angle. Then i start my stroke pulling away.
thanks Ross, I experimented with both. I found the fluffy feel of the rough side nice, but I had some buildup of leather and gunk on it. Sometimes I found the smooth side feel a little bit too hard.
Since I like the slick feel (after all, it has too be enjoyable too) I started to rough up the leather with fine grit sandpaper (600+) to make it just a little velvety.
Nice write up. I think I have been convinced to try the diapaste.
Good thing. I was swayed by knifenut. It was a good advice I think.





thanks all of you for the compliments, much appreciated. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
I'm off to do some stropping dudes :D
 
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