Source for leather strops?

Zatx

Zatx

Joined
May 4, 2007
Messages
196
I've read some great tutorials for making leather strops on here. Thank you for those that take the time to create these.

Unfortunately I can't find a local retailer that sells acceptable leather. So I need to go to an online source. If I have to go to an online source and pay shipping and wait for shipping times, etc, I might as well just order a strop.

Do you guys have recommendations for a source of either hand held or bench plain strops?

I have found one at Knives Plus that sells for about $30 with shipping, but it is preloaded with the green compound and I really want to use the DMT Diamond pastes.

Thank you.
 
It's pretty hard for me to find good strop leather here and buying online would be pricey. So i decided to try the diamond paste on balsa wood since balsa is far easier for me to find. I just started with the 1 micron paste to find out how I liked it. I liked the results so much that I have ordered the 6 and 3 micron pastes and now have 2 balsa wood strops ready for them. The added benefit is I just spend money on pastes and not on both leather and paste.
 
I bought my last (2) strops off of a bladeforums member, mrblue strops. I think I paid right around 30 delivered for (2). He makes them by hand, and I liked being able to support a BF member.
 
MHill said:
I bought my last (2) strops off of a bladeforums member, mrblue strops. I think I paid right around 30 delivered for (2). He makes them by hand, and I liked being able to support a BF member.
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I agree. Not only that his strops are much better than the others that were manufactured that I used in the past.
 
So you can find him a little easier his user name is actually Mr2blue. When I bought mine there was a large and a slightly smaller one for about $30-40 depending on the wood. The small one was about 1.5" shorter than the large and plenty big enough. I know he started making them for a store so you just need to contact him to see what he has available as most get sold to the store. Great stropes with beautiful wood as a bonus.
 
If you're just looking for flexible leather strops, JRE Industries does some great ones for a little money.

I think my field strop was about $10 but it's just a piece of leather with compound on it. It's maybe 24" long and rolls up and slips in a pocket on my pack.

B
 
Thank you. Found Mr. Blues strops.

As a side note where would be a good source of 4mm or so leather?
 
I bought mine from Tandy Leather. I bought it at a retail store out of the scrap bin. I use it unmounted just setting it on top of the work bench. It works for me. YMMV.

I have read about others that use only a certain cut of horse hide. Might work better but in testing before and after stropping my system does refine my edges to where I want them to be.

Good Luck
 
I'll 2nd a recommendation for Tandy. If you don't have a store near you, can be ordered online.

Leather is typically sized by weight (oz.). If I recall correctly, the base conversion is 1/64" = 1 ounce. So, '8 oz.' leather would be about 8/64" (1/8") thickness. 4mm comes out to about 0.157", so I'm assuming you're looking for 10/64" (0.156"), or 10 oz. weight.
 
I have had success finding good belts suitable for strops at two local thrift stores. Paid 10 cents for one and a whole 25 cents for the other. Used some scrap wood I had laying around the garage and glued pieces to them. Did same thing on a couple of paint stirring sticks.
 
Hi guys. Just to give an update.

Looked all over locally for a source of leather with no luck. Scoured the internet for online sources. Seems like everywhere I looked the shipping was more than the leather so it was going to be at least $30 for enough leather to make a four sided strop bat. Ended up finding a guy on eBay that sold leather cut to order. Got a 12x12 sheet of 4mm thick vegetable tanned for $15.

I have a brother that is a custom cabinet maker. I sharpened up his knives and in return he is currently making me a strop bat from some exotic wood that I'm sure will look way too amazing for what it will be used for.

So in conclusion.... Ended up making my own strop bat for $15.

(By the way. Mr2Blue was very patient with me while I figured out which direction I wanted to go.. thanks!)
 
FlaMtnBkr said:
So you can find him a little easier his user name is actually Mr2blue. When I bought mine there was a large and a slightly smaller one for about $30-40 depending on the wood. The small one was about 1.5" shorter than the large and plenty big enough. I know he started making them for a store so you just need to contact him to see what he has available as most get sold to the store. Great stropes with beautiful wood as a bonus.
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Hope this doesnt sound dumb of me, but how do I search for this Forum member? I looked under search but no luck.
 
MTHall720 said:
Hope this doesnt sound dumb of me, but how do I search for this Forum member? I looked under search but no luck.
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Type the query into the search in the top right corner of the page. A list of threads will appear, and the pertinent one will be among the top hits.
 
Thanks for the mention Ben!

The leather at CKTG is identical to what we've offered via Woodcraft since 1998 that wood heads have been using on carving knives, plane irons, chisels, etc.

I can call them wood heads cause' I are one.

Keith
 
Just to give an update.

My brother finished the woodwork for my bat and today at lunch I cut the leather and glued it in place. The DMT Dia-Pastes should be here tomorrow or hopefully Saturday. Once I get it all put together I'll post some pictures.

Was my first time cutting 4mm thick leather (or any leather for that matter), man that is tough stuff!

The work was tougher than some guides led me to believe, but at the end of the day I have the pride in knowing that I worked with my brother to craft something of purpose.
 
Zatx said:
Just to give an update.

My brother finished the woodwork for my bat and today at lunch I cut the leather and glued it in place. The DMT Dia-Pastes should be here tomorrow or hopefully Saturday. Once I get it all put together I'll post some pictures.

Was my first time cutting 4mm thick leather (or any leather for that matter), man that is tough stuff!

The work was tougher than some guides led me to believe, but at the end of the day I have the pride in knowing that I worked with my brother to craft something of purpose.
Click to expand...

And now, you've started down the path...

The nice thing about making your own strop, it's sort of a gift (to your knife) that keeps on giving. The leather might've seemed pretty tough to cut now, but once you've been feeding the sharpening bug for a while (with your new strop, and other tools), that leather won't seem quite so hard to cut anymore. ;)

Way to go! :thumbup:
 
I used a Spyderco Endura 4 in ZDP to cut the leather. The knife had just been returned to me from Spyderco where I had sent it to be sharpened. Sending off this knife to be sharpened is what made me step back and decide to really learn how to sharpen a knife for myself. So it was somewhat fitting that it would be used to further this endeavor.

Surprisingly after I cut all this leather up I figured I had dulled the heck out of the blade. Just a few passes over my Sharpmaker and it was actually sharper than when I got it from Spyderco!
 
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