Side Handle Strop

C

cliff355

Joined
Apr 19, 2003
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Recently I became frustrated by file-shaped hardware store strops. As my khuks become sharper, they also become more bloodthirsty and keeping fingers off the edges is sometimes tough. So, I glued a piece of 10 oz. leather smooth-side down on a maple board 2 1/2" x 19" long. These dimensions were arrived at due to the size of the piece that came out of my scrap bin.

Then, I glued a piece of 3/4" broomstick into a hole in the back. The resultant strop is much easier to use and keeps fingers entirely away from the blade at all times. The khuk can be passed over the strop, or the strop over the khuk. Either way works fine, and the increased surface area strops a fine edge on in a hurry.

In the picture the strop is loaded with green buffing compound, and one of Kumar's 16.5" finger-groove Chiruwas is along side as a size reference.



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Looks good, I'm gonna have to do that sometime here when time and money(for compound, not for leather or wood, got those) alloy.

Thanks for sharing. :)
 
I like it. :) When you're not sharpening your knives you can use it as one of them side handle police batons. :D

Is there a proper side to use the leather on a strop. I've seen smooth side up and smooth side down. Is there a difference between the two? :confused:
 
Strops I have seen for straight edged razors seem to have the smooth side up. However, if you are using buffing compound I think the rough side will hold more.
 
Originally posted by BruiseLeee
I like it. :) Is there a proper side to use the leather on a strop. I've seen smooth side up and smooth side down. Is there a difference between the two? :confused:
Click to expand...

I've tried it both ways and prefer the smooth side up. It doesn't take as much compound as one would think to do an excellent job. Just the leather alone will work, just a lot slower.:)
 
I didn't see the attachment the first time around.:o I had it pictured differently. I put a dowel rod just below the in line handle on mine to keep from running upon the edge or pulling the edge into my hand.
That oughta work well.:)

I've also found that a little neatsfoot oil will help to load the strop with compound thats pretty dry and hard.
It takes a little experimenting to get just the right amount, but it saves me a lot of hassle when dealing with the hard or powdered compounds.
I got some fine diatomaceous(sp?) earth once and used it on a strop. It's an extremely fine abrasive powder and worked well, but wasn't worth the hassle of putting on the dry powder. I'm thinking maybe a non-fibrous and non-petroluem wheel bearing grease would work well for applying the dry powders. Paste wax may be another option, but I haven't tried that.
The beeswax and parrafin mix that is used to coat thread for crafting might work well too.
 
Here's question for Cliff and Dan(and I'ill ask others as I compile the information). I was thinking tha tit might be nice to have kind of a compilation CD for care of the khuks(sharpening, care, handles, etc). Not sure how much room is left on Dan's CD space wise, but sure we could fit a bunch more information on it, such as this strop, and others. Would you two(again, will ask others as I pull posts) mind if I got these all together as one and offered the CD to people?

Would just be asking a few bucks to cover shipping and CD, same as Dan did. Not making any money, just figured this might be a nice service for people here in Cantina, particularly first time buyers. If I can compile a pretty nice collection here, and take a few weekends to clean it all up and make it semi pretty(I'm not good enough to have it look really good), come next January or February would offer to even take say next 10-20 first time buyers(starting from when I'm done) and I'll ship them the CD free of charge, pending approvval from all the contributing authors and Uncle Bill.

Just an idea I had sitting on pot. I'm convinced all the truly revolutionary ideas come to men in the bathroom. ;)
 
I wouldn't mind. Actually, I had this in plan already, before things tightened up here. But what I had in mind was to be a bit Flashy - if you know what I mean. ;)
 
Ooo, good idea. Gonna have to dig that out again and play with it, but think that'd be very doable.
 
Dan, regarding your sharpening CD, am I missing something? ALl the sound I get are cars in the background. (Of course I'm missing "something," but that's for another thread.)
 
you don't see any of the videos?

They're AVI files - do you have a good video file player? PC or Mac? Stuff happens...I'll help the best I can.
 
Dan, I see just fine, but all I hear is traffic noise. Was there narration of what you're doing in the videos?
 
:o :o :o

Sorry, Thomas. No narrating. Hard enough to just keep from cutting myself, let alone talk at the same time...:D :D


Just remembered something - the CD is about 400 MB, so there a little bit of room left, but not a ton. just fyi.
 
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