Making a strop

[buckman110]

I cut some red oak blocks to attach leather i was going to use one for green blits compound one for flexcut gold and one plain. There 10 inches long by 2 inch pretty thick leather. Ive always just used a dark brown strop plain on the fuzzy side with great results. Any suggestions on what side to use or anything i should know? Id appreciate it guys!

 

[RevDevil]

Maintenance, Tinkering & Embellishment
Your how-to area for discussion on sharpeners, rust prevention, alteration & more.

Moving your thread there, General Knife Discussion is for discussing the knives themselves.

 

[buckman110]

Oh ok

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

I cut some red oak blocks to attach leather i was going to use one for green blits compound one for flexcut gold and one plain. There 10 inches long by 2 inch pretty thick leather. Ive always just used a dark brown strop plain on the fuzzy side with great results. Any suggestions on what side to use or anything i should know? Id appreciate it guys!

With green compound, I've always liked using a leather belt used the same way, on the fuzzy side (back). I use it like a hanging strop (barber-style), and it works great on 1095, CV, 420HC and other similar low-wear steels. When used as a hanging strop, it doesn't compress to the same degree, as with a leather strop on a hard surface; therefore the stroke is a very light 'skimming' one, and it seems to be the right touch for those steels. If you're getting good results using the fuzzy side bare, you might try it with compound as well. It's always good to experiment with any & all possibilities; some steels will respond better to one config, and others to a different setup. Individual pieces of leather will be highly variable on both the smooth and fuzzy sides, so the only 'best' way to know which works better is to try both sides. With strops that I made myself (leather on red oak), I was even in the habit of sanding the smooth side to give it some of that fuzzy 'nap'; it holds the compound better, and worked pretty well for a leather strop, and better than when I tried using the same leather un-sanded. With leather, the first thing is to select a piece that's as firm as possible, so it won't compress under the blade and round off the apex; after that, just make sure to keep pressure very light when using it. The firmer the strop and backing are, the more tolerant they'll be to somewhat heavier pressure.


David