Leather strop... make or buy?

W

WillieD

Joined
Jan 22, 2004
Messages
267
I have a few convex blades coming and am looking at using a leather strop for more of my sharpening. I bought a $3 tube of green compound at Harbor Freight and attached a section of leather belt to a paint stick and am using that for now. I am not really happy with the setup though. The belt is kinda humped in the middle so it doesn't lay totally flat and I think the compound is really cheap. I was looking at the Bark River strops with compound for $40. Two different compounds and two sided strop with free shipping. How much money/quality difference am I going to have if I round up my own leather, pc. of wood, and better quality compounds compared to just buying the Bark River strop? Feel free to post your own strops with what material and where you acquired it from if you like. Thanks
 
I made my current strop IN A CAVE, WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS errr... out of scrap plywood and leather for a few cents and a few minutes effort. It's served me quite well, and you could probably make one yourself for way less than it'd cost to buy a premade one. :thumbup:
 
contact mr2blue here on the forums for a nice custom strop under the 40.00 price of the Bark River--he makes the best strop around--will be the best money you ever spent--i have two of them--:thumbup:
 
The $40 gets two things of compound along with the two sided strop. Is the black and green compound that BR sells worth the $25 or can I just get a better quality green compound somewhere and be good to go? BTW, HF had some leather work belts on clearance for $7. One side was stamped with decorations, but the other side was just the unfinished leather. It was kinda thin, but do you think that would work pasted to a 2x4?
 
I like the JRE 4 sided paddle strop. with black, green, pink compound and bare leather.
 
If you can find a leather store in your area, you can do much better than leather belts, usually for less money. Most places will sell you scraps on the cheap, or at the very least lengths of your choice of material.

As for compound, I just use Lee Valley's green compound. I think it's about ten bucks a stick and a stick of that stuff lasts forever, especially if you're only using it for strops. I don't know how it compares to Bark River's compounds, but it works just fine for me.
 
Its better to make it because you get just what you want, you can get the best products for cheaper than pre made. First forget about standard bar compound and upgrade to diamond, it will make the biggest difference. You can find really nice pices of hardwood at your local lumber yard then all that's left is to put the two together. I even have a "how to" thread for it.
 
Also, if you want really nice edges then DON'T buy bars or sticks of compound usually they are particles AS small as .5 microns, but in reality they can be as big as 3 microns. The liquid and powder compound is the best way to go and HandAmerican.com sells the best in the business, if you can get past their CS.
 
I buy Handamerican compressed leather off the shelf at Woodcraft store in Ventura CA.
 
Anyone have contact info for mr2blue? Also, do I need a 2 sided or just one. If I go with the diamond paste, is there still an need for green compound on the other side or vice versa? Thanks for the help.
 
you dont need a 2 sided one, but you could use green compound on 1 side and diamond on the other. all depends on what you want
 
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