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- Nov 18, 2010
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Awhile back I talked to a couple of folks and they were wanting to know how to go about making a decent strop. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get my hands on any sizable pieces of leather, so I made do with what I could scrounge together. For now. 
I wanted to make one on the cheap, and cheaply 'twas made. Hit the local goodwill and struck out, but managed to find what I was after at a local outlet store. Leather belt, on clearance ($2), no weird stitching or odd material, just good 'ole leather. It was already dyed, but that didn't matter for what I was after, and it had an odd texture, but as you'll see, that didn't matter either.
Also needed were two of the heavy duty paint sticks from Lowe's. They keep them behind the counter, and they are free. About a quarter inch thick, two of them together make for a fairly decent base for your strop. Using contact cement (rubber cement) I applied a generous amount to the faces of each of the paint stir sticks (this way when you are done you don't have all the Lowe's advertising showing) and wait for them to dry. Once dry, apply the faces and press them together. I used speed clamps to make this happen.
Like the paint stick says, make sure to have it all covered.
Then, cut the belt to length. At this point the belt was too wide. I clamped the stick on top of the belt on my desk and trimmed the sides of the belt, but you can easily do this after you attach the leather to the strop. Here again, use the rubber cement. Coat one side of the leather, and the face side of the strop. The side of the leather you have facing up is up to you. I've used the rough side, this time we'll use the smooth side face up.
Once the leather is attached, you will have for all intents and purposes a strop, but this one had a texture to the leather on the smooth side, and we don't want that. So I hit it with the sandpaper. (This made a huge mess btw.) Once that is finished, apply your strop compound of choice (this time I went with green) and voila! Strop.
I got a little overzealous and attempted to melt some of the stropping compound into the face of the strop, which was exactly what I didn't need to do. I ended up going back and sanding off the ridiculous amount of compound I had dripped onto the strop. Once I got it cleaned up I simply rubbed the compound onto the strop until I had a decent coverage. Hope this helps those that are wanting to make a strop for themselves.
There are a ton of threads on this already, but this is how I go about it. Once I get my hands on a larger chunk of leather I'll post up a part 2 with something a little more sizable.
I wanted to make one on the cheap, and cheaply 'twas made. Hit the local goodwill and struck out, but managed to find what I was after at a local outlet store. Leather belt, on clearance ($2), no weird stitching or odd material, just good 'ole leather. It was already dyed, but that didn't matter for what I was after, and it had an odd texture, but as you'll see, that didn't matter either.
Also needed were two of the heavy duty paint sticks from Lowe's. They keep them behind the counter, and they are free. About a quarter inch thick, two of them together make for a fairly decent base for your strop. Using contact cement (rubber cement) I applied a generous amount to the faces of each of the paint stir sticks (this way when you are done you don't have all the Lowe's advertising showing) and wait for them to dry. Once dry, apply the faces and press them together. I used speed clamps to make this happen.
Like the paint stick says, make sure to have it all covered.
Then, cut the belt to length. At this point the belt was too wide. I clamped the stick on top of the belt on my desk and trimmed the sides of the belt, but you can easily do this after you attach the leather to the strop. Here again, use the rubber cement. Coat one side of the leather, and the face side of the strop. The side of the leather you have facing up is up to you. I've used the rough side, this time we'll use the smooth side face up.
Once the leather is attached, you will have for all intents and purposes a strop, but this one had a texture to the leather on the smooth side, and we don't want that. So I hit it with the sandpaper. (This made a huge mess btw.) Once that is finished, apply your strop compound of choice (this time I went with green) and voila! Strop.
I got a little overzealous and attempted to melt some of the stropping compound into the face of the strop, which was exactly what I didn't need to do. I ended up going back and sanding off the ridiculous amount of compound I had dripped onto the strop. Once I got it cleaned up I simply rubbed the compound onto the strop until I had a decent coverage. Hope this helps those that are wanting to make a strop for themselves.
There are a ton of threads on this already, but this is how I go about it. Once I get my hands on a larger chunk of leather I'll post up a part 2 with something a little more sizable.
