Making strop

K

Kirk D

Joined
Feb 17, 1999
Messages
493
I saw the strop Keith Kilby uses to finish his edges. A strip of leather glued to a piece of wood.

I want to make one of my own..., but I'm not sure whether to leave exposed the rougher side of the leather, or the finished side.

Keith's was pretty smooth.., but I assume the strop will get that way, after some use.. whichever side you start out with.
 
Kirk,

A few months back Leather Crafter and Saddlers Journal ran an article on making strops. It said to glue the rough(flesh) side of your leather strip to the board. The smooth(grain) side was to be treated with jewelers' rouge or some other ultra fine grit compound.

Although I haven't found it necessary to make a strop, sometimes I will touch up a blade on a piece of belt strip scrap. If you use the rough side it doesn't need to be treated but it will eventually become useless. By treating and using the smooth side you have a renewable strop.

Good Luck!

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Travis Autry
My knives are just like rabbits---they keep multiplying!!
 
I use the smooth side of the leather. It's treated with green metal polishing compound. I use several strops for carving gouges that are glue down to wooden forms (hollows and rounds). Woodcraft sells a simple flat stop on a 1.5 inch wide board with a handle. They also have at least three different grades of polishing compound. I got several nice pieces of leather just for asking at a boot repair shop. You don't really need to glue it down to a smaller board. A relatively thick piece laid down on your bench or desk will do the job just fine for straight edges. BTW: stropping makes sense only when sharpening well above 600 grit. Otherwise, a knife steel will probably be easier to keep the edge aligned during use.

Paracelsus
 
Rough side / smooth side is a perennial flame war in the lapidary field ... in fact it doesn't make any difference.

I glue a piece of latigo to the back of a hone and treat it with tripoli compound.


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-Cougar Allen :{)
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This post is not merely the author's opinions; it is the trrrrrruth. This post is intended to cause dissension and unrest and upset people, and ultimately drive them mad. Please do not misinterpret my intentions in posting this.
 
kirk,
I made a 2-72 leather belt. It works great
for stropping and you should see what it does
for polishing pearl and titanium.

mvknives@lightspeed.net
 
Glue the leather to the edge of a 2X4. That way you have lots of clearance between your table or work bench and the handle of the knife when you strop it.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
Kirk, I used the smooth side up and the green polishing compound in the leather, though some say the leather is coarse enough to do the job.

A word of caution when using the strop, as you push the knife away from you down the length of the strop, when you get to the end of the stroke, lift the knife off the strop completely before turning it 180 to come back, some tend to flip it over and draw the blade back to themselves and that can actually cause the edge to roll over and defeat the whole strop process, so remember to draw away and then lift the knife up, turn, drop back down and pull towards you, then, lift and turn and repeat the process. The polish really puts a nice finish on the blade when done and you get a very sharp edge on the knife!
G2

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"There are no dangerous weapons;
there are only dangerous men."
.......... Robert A. Heinlein, 1959


G2 Leatherworks

[This message has been edited by Gary W. Graley (edited 01-11-2000).]
 
I offer no knowledge bhind this, simply trial and error.

I made a strop by glueing a strip of leather to a board, folding the edges over so the leather runs right to the edge of the board. It was 'furry' side up, for what it's worth.

I initially 'charged' it by rubbing brown tripoli compound into it, but was less than impressed with the results. The compound would kind of 'glaze' and flake off in big flakes, decreasing the effect as it went.

On a whim, I poured some lightweight motor oil onto the strop and worked it in till the leather was entirely saturated with a light coating of oil. I then left it oily side down on some newspaper to mop up any excess. The next day, I repeated the 'charging' process and rubbed some more tripoli into it. The results now are fantastic. The oil and compound work very well together indeed... Basically, I've now got a fine grinding slurry spread thinly through the whole strop surface.

Just the ticket for my Benchmades, Spideys and planes.

Cheers,
tim
 
Tim, very nice discovery! Some wood carvers like to use Vaseline on the leather to hold polishing compounds or even VERY fine aluminum oxide powder. But I suppose motor oil would work just as well. The standard air brush eraser grade aluminum oxide found at most hobby stores is much too coarse for stropping. But it will work if you want to remove a lot of metal and don't have a fine stone handy. Wood carving supply stores usually have a finer grade of aluminum oxide.

I have seen the point Gary Grayley made about picking the knife up at the end of the stroke before putting it down again repeated Many times in woodcarving magazines. He is absolutely correct. I am not certain that the 180 turn is essential, but it would certainly reinforce using correct technique. This is Very important. Improper stropping will round or roll over an edge so that starting over using an ultrafine hone and stropping again might be necessay. Stropping a knife frequently during use will help maintain a edge for much longer periods in between stone honing.

Some woodcarvers like to use the rough side of the leather with no compound for quick touch-ups. That's why I don't glue All of my strops down. I can lay a charged piece of leather over any handy section of flat wood, or lay it down in any of the many sizes of half round forms I made for stropping large qouges.

Paracelsus

[This message has been edited by Paracelsus (edited 01-11-2000).]
 
Paracelsus, I know what you mean on the 180 thing, I was trying to put a mental picture into words that the knife needed to be lifted up off the strap and then rotated, didn't mean it had to be exactly 180, just flipped over, and the deal with the oil is a good recommendation, I've dropped a couple drops of honing oil and smoothed up the surface as well and that does help, some times I'll take and scrap all the old built up compound off and start a fresh. There are those that feel you shouldn't strop at all, but man when I finish the blade on the ceramic stones and then strop it, the hairs on my arm, the ones left that is
smile.gif
, can be cut with out going to the surface of the skin, sort of like tree top trimming!

One time I sharpened a bunch of knives for the fellows at work, that night after all was done I realized that there wasn't a hair remaining on my left arm! from shoulder to knuckles, BARE! My wife didn't noticed till I crossed my arms and then WHAM! `What have you done!!! she said, `Looks like you've got mange!' Well I had to promise I'd never do that again, but she thought I meant never shave hair off my arm, I meant never shave my arm completely bare, oops!

But telling her that we have a Constitutional Right to Bare Arms didn't seem to help much.
wink.gif


G2

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"There are no dangerous weapons;
there are only dangerous men."
.......... Robert A. Heinlein, 1959


G2 Leatherworks
 
:
Hi Guys.
Do any of you have any suggestions where to get powdered Chromium Oxide locally or on the net if I have too?
I understand it to be the green colored powder that's supposed to be the finest grit availible.Is that correct?

I have tried the local paint shops and some of the hobby stores.The closest I have found is in a liquid form.
Would that work after it was rubbed in and dry?

I made a strop by glueing a strip of leather on a 1" dowel rod and charged it with jewelers rouge.It works great on recurved blades like the khukuri.

Thanks.
smile.gif


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>>>>---¥vsa---->®

If you mix milk of magnesia with vodka and orange juice do you get a phillips screwdriver?

Khukuri FAQ


 
Very little compound is needed. If you try to coat the leather so thickly the stuff flakes off that's way too much. Just rub a little compound into the leather and start stropping ... the compound will be embedded into the leather and soon you might think it's gone, but it isn't. A strop will go a loooong time between chargings. Any time you think the strop might not be working as well as before and might need a charging you can try rubbing some more compound into it ... and you'll probably find you were wrong and it doesn't make a bit of difference.



------------------
-Cougar Allen :{)
--------------------------------------
This post is not merely the author's opinions; it is the trrrrrruth. This post is intended to cause dissension and unrest and upset people, and ultimately drive them mad. Please do not misinterpret my intentions in posting this.
 
Go to www.woodcraft.com
They have micro fine honing compound, that is pre greezed to charge a strop or buffing wheel. The grit size is .5 microns. I got a 20 oz bar of it for around 19 bucks. That isn't real cheap but 20 oz's is going to last forever if its just for charging a strop. If it isn't onthe site ( I think it is) its in the catalog along with a ton of other sharpening stuff. The catalog is free.

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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
 
Like Senator, I bought the leather strops from Hand American and it is really nice & comes in a quality wooden case. I had a homemade leather strop that I had used for years, but like this one much better and it comes with detailed instructions. Just my 2 cents!
 
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