Help me with a strop please.

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rc3mil

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Ok so i now have a knife, a sharpening system and im looking to make a strop. But where to begin? What kind of leather am i supposed to use? What side of the leather? Where can i buy this leather? Fabric stores, walmart? Ive heard mixed opinions on whether to use a compound or not. Bluntruth4u on youtube just uses a leather belt with no compound at all and he says it works fine for him. Others here on the forums say compound is best. Some say diamond is best others say green. Can compound be bought from stores or is this stuff only available online? I want to make this strop tomorrow, i dont really want to fuss with ordering stuff online. So if anyone knows any stores in the hampton roads area in VA where i can get the stuff i need to make a strop/compound/leather etc or just buy a strop for relatively cheap, that would be greatly appreciated.

But the main things are.

What type of leather? Hard or soft?
Compound? If so what kind?
Where to buy?
What do you think the total cost would be to make a strop?
Will stropping make a noticeable difference in cutting performance?
Should i make one or buy?

Thanks to all that reply.
 
Buy quality leather, it makes a difference.

Nothing beats diamond compound.

Green comund is not all the same and if you decide to use this type of compound make sure to buy the good stuff.

Woodcraft.com
classicshaving.com
handamerican.com
leevally.com

^all good places to get supplies
 
I like Woodcraft, they have a store in Ventura that I always stop into. They sell Hand American compressed leather. I made some paddle strops out of oak wood and glued the leather to the paddle with Gorilla glue. Thin layer of glue and then it expands anyways, but holds strong. I made 2, I have Flitz on one, and green compound on the other. The only thing I did wrong was clamp to a piece of carboard to leather side, and then to a 2x4. I was thinking I would prevent the wood grain from the 2x4 transferring, which was successful. Problem is,, the cardboard corrugation transferred, so I have a bumpy strop. So, CJ thinks, hmmmm, clamp one strop to the other to flatten them both out, now I have 2 bumpy strops. They work fine, and next time, I have a slight upslope to my learning curve.
 
cj65 said:
Problem is,, the cardboard corrugation transferred, so I have a bumpy strop.
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Handamerican sold me a strop some years ago with a diamond pattern embossed into the leather. I don't know if they are still selling this stuff. They seem to change their merch more often than I change my socks.

Personally, I can't see any difference in the results I get with it vs results with a smooth strop, both being used bare. I bought it because at the time I was still in my 'buy everything and anything that has to do with sharpening' phase. This was after Handamerican stopped selling their double-sided slip-in bench-mounted strops and was selling their magnetically attached to the bench mount strops. They sold a lot of different types of leather strops, colors of leather strops, configurations of leather strops, etc., etc., etc., and I bought at least one of each.

I use three double sided strops now. One rough leather strop with CrO2/bare for convexed blades, one smooth leather with CrO2/bare for beveled blades, and one smooth leather .5mic diamond/bare for beveled blades. All the other strops sit in two drawers and have for years. (Along with a half dozen bottles of powderd SiC grits of different numbers, spare jars of various grits of SiC paste and Boron paste, a spare bottle of CrO2 liquid that I thought I'd need, all bought from HA because they were selling it and I thought if they were selling it I must need it, and some CrO2 powder I experimented with once, and never, ever again. With compounds, a little goes a VERY long way!) Your bumps won't hurt anything, and I don't think they help anything either. They just is! :)
 
Been buying strop leather from HandAmerican for almost 20 years. All he does is make and sell knife sharpening gear.
 
I don't know about the compounds, but as for the leather, there really isn't a consensus.

Since I have used a good many strops both store bought and crudely homemade ones, and know a little about leather, I'd suggest that the best leather might be latigo. I have the wood cutout for two strop paddles and I am probably not going to use latigo because you typically have to buy it in whole sides.

I will either use regular veg tanned tooling leather in 7-8 ox or 8-10 oz or possibly heavier if I can find it. This weight leather I think is somewhat less thick that what you would find on the skirting of a saddle.

The best way to get smaller pieces of leather is to visit your local saddle shop and buy some off the saddle maker. They more than likely have plenty of scrap they would love to sell.
 
I have been using belt leather with no compound and if works for me, -removing the burr. I have been using the same belt for a while now and it is still going strong.

You can go to just about any thrift shop (2nd-hand merchandise store) and find a nice leather belt with no coating on the back. Mine only cost me $2.50 and it was probably a 40 dollar leather belt brand new.

I imagine the quality of leather in belts will vary a lot, and you may not have a thrift shop in your area so buying leather directly may be a easier option for you.

I would like to try some compound out, and I am sure it would improve my strop a whole lot but I get by with a dry strop anyway.
 
The Government said:
I would like to try some compound out, and I am sure it would improve my strop a whole lot but I get by with a dry strop anyway.
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I don't think it would improve your strop. I think it would make it work differently.
Compounds cut more quickly than plain leather, but if we sharpen to a high enough level, and then strop correctly on plain leather, and that get's our knives as sharp as we want them to be, do we really need more?


Stitchawl
 
What is the grit level of the natural silicates?
 
knifenut1013 said:
What is the grit level of the natural silicates?
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That is a REALLY good question! I don't think I've ever seen any numbers given for it. Anybody with very good research skills reading this thread?

I do know that there are natural silicates found in ordinary green grass, hay, etc., which wear down certain animal's teeth, but I've never seen any sort of comparison for that either!

Stitchawl
 
I only ask because most that have a complete set of sharpening stones would be lucky to excede 8000 grit or 2-3 microns. If the natural silicates are .5 or smaller it would take forever to properly strop the edge and then factor in something like S30V and you would probably see little to no effect on the edge. My guess would be in the .5-.3 range but the concertation seems to be very small.
 
knifenut1013 said:
I only ask because most that have a complete set of sharpening stones would be lucky to excede 8000 grit or 2-3 microns. If the natural silicates are .5 or smaller it would take forever to properly strop the edge and then factor in something like S30V and you would probably see little to no effect on the edge. My guess would be in the .5-.3 range but the concertation seems to be very small.
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How's this for some 'guestimation' work....

If I strop with .5mic diamond followed by a bare Russian leather strop I get a better edge than if I strop with the Russian leather and then follow with .5mic diamond compound. Therefore....
My guess is that the silicates must be smaller than the .5mic.

I have no way of verifying the numbers. I have to take the maker's word for the fact that it is actually .5mics. But there is no doubt in my mind the I get better results with the bare leather following the compound rather than the other way around. My 'test' is cutting high quality paper that is telephone book paper thickness (but not telephone book paper... that stuff is too inconsistent.)

Stitchawl
 
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