Making a strop and have ?s

akadave2

akadave2

Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
7,923
I bought some heavy leather from a leather shop and I was going to attach a piece to a 2X4 and use it that way. Do I use the smooth side of the leather or the rough?

Sorry if this has been covered before.
 
I like polished edges. Smooth for me.
 
I have the Lee Valley strop and it has the smooth side up on both sides. I have read that some put the rough side up. I wonder if it would be beneficial to have a two sided strop with on rough side and one smooth side?
 
Traditional razor strops are cloth-covered on the rough side - you use the smooth to finish but can charge the cloth with rouge if you want
 
Jewelers rouge makes a great difference for me. I like the pink stuff you can find at Sears, Home Depot or Lowes. It is not that expensive so you can try a couple or three grits and stick with what you like. I find the rouge takes things to a higher level of sharpness and it is worth the 3 or 4 bucks a tube, but you might be happy with the untreated leather especially if you are not as obsessive as I am about keeping the knives I use sharper than they really need to be. :D.
 
I went for it and bought this strop - http://www.knivesplus.com/KP-STROP8-STROPBLOCK.html

I am totally delighted with it. It makes my knives razor sharp and it's only $15.00. I think it's the strop deal of then century. Making one costs me more in time and materials than I paid for this strop.

Highly recommended by me for what that's worth. It's with me all the time in my Bail Out Bag . . .
 
antonio_luiz said:
Traditional razor strops are cloth-covered on the rough side - you use the smooth to finish but can charge the cloth with rouge if you want
Click to expand...


I use this one:

http://www.blokeystuff.com.au/Product.php?bar=10473

Beautiful strop, has a very fine grain leather on one side that you use for final finishing and a somewhat coarser grain leather on the other side for finishing off after the stone. My knives are shaving sharp with a very nice edge. This includes everything from the small SAK to the Busse.

I do not use any compounds.
 
Over the years I gradually put a number of cuts into my strops. Eventually there were a number of them. I took a power sander and just sanded out the cuts (messy), loaded the strop again, and I could barely tell the difference after some use. The strop got that same metallic shine to it and the same feel it had before. So in the long run I don't think it makes a difference to a loaded strop that is used hard (I use mine to refinish bevels after sharpening, too - they'll quickly take a splotchy looking bevel to a nice and even finish).
 
I have a strop with rough side up loaded with #1 rouge, and a smooth strop loaded with #6 rouge. The #1 strop I use to work semi-dull blades, & clean up the flats on stained carbon steel blades, while the #6 strop is final polish after fine stones, or 2000 wet/dry paper.
 
I made strop from relatively thing leather with pores. Most you need to avoid is leather bends under pressure, It rather need to stretch to absorb movement fluctuation but it should not be thick. I had leather from AHM before and it did not work (to the extent thin leather works).

Also do not glue leather it should be free to be able to stretch.

Here my strop and leather - you may see clear how it made and how to use it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WY8rhecws8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PSWinDX0o8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zCsj0_8urM

Here results I can achieve (kind of proof of my words):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI_iqAyb3xA

Thanks, Vassili.

P.S. I found that 1" wide is more then enough, more important to have it 12" long.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top