Strop backing wood options?

sierra11b

sierra11b

Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Messages
622
I went to Tandy leather and got a nice piece of 1/8" thick premium cowhide and my wife surprised me with a piece of scrap cordovan she purchased on ebay for a song.

I can yield either three 12" strops or five 10"X3" strops from the cow and one 12"X3" strop from the cordovan scrap.

I know of all the alternative backing materials such as MDF, plastics, and even glass, but really want a nice wood backing for these nice leathers.

I am not a wood worker but have worked with wood before (if that makes any sense?). By that I mean I could never seem to wait long enough to cure a nice piece which would inevitably warp or crack. I went to Woodcraft in my area to find something nice, possibly exotic with a lower oil content so that the glue would stick, but there were no guarantees as for possible warpage and hardly any of the pieces were completely flat; some severely warped.

My question is where can I find nice 1" thick pieces of nice hardwood (such as Walnut) that are completely flat, cured, and can be cut to the dimensions I want?

If I have to go to Tap plastics I will but wanted to at least give this a shot first.

Thanks,
Eric
 
Try HD or Lowes for some hardwood pieces pre cut and finished on both sides. I got some that were 2' long made out of ash for about $3 or so. It was not 1 inch thick, but was about 3/8 thick. I cut and sanded some handles out of them for some balsa strops. I would have used leather if I had any on hand or a place to get some locally. They came out just great. The wood is hard, flat, just the right size to fit my hands.

Omar
:rolleyes:
 
Look up a cabinet local cabinet shop and they may have some scraps and they could probably cut it for you too.

If you google "hardwood supply, sacramento, ca" you will find several places that carry hard woods.

ric
 
Not sure HD or Lowe's will carry walnut. Might vary by region, depending on local availability of certain woods. Walnut is one of my favorite woods, and I know I would've jumped on some if I'd found it there. I ended up using some red oak stock (very straight, and stable too), which I did pick up at either HD or Lowe's (in central Texas at the time), though I currently don't remember which one. They sold what I think were labelled as 'craft woods' in red oak, poplar, and ash. Ideally sized for strop blocks too, in widths of 1-1/2", 2-1/2", and maybe 4"/6" as well. Several thickness choices as well, at 1/4", 1/2" and 3/4", at least. Lengths in 2', 4' and longer. Edit: Looking at HD's site, they have a lot of these listed as 'Appearance Boards' (designated as 'S4S', which means smoothly finished on all sides).

Don't know if you already asked, but it may be worth checking back with your local Woodcraft store. Even if the stock they had might've been irregular, they might(?) be willing to cut/plane a rough piece to size for you. I think Woodcraft regularly schedules woodworking classes in at least some of their stores, and that might be an interesting path to investigate, if they could show you how to shape the piece yourself, on the power tools in their store.
 
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Any new homes going up in your area? Hardwood flooring scraps like maple or oak. Always pieces over 2" wide and different lengths are thrown away.
 
Another place you could look is a building materials recycling place. I used to go to one in SFO, got some ipe, oak, and birdseye maple flooring scraps for cheap. I also got a maple (hard) and walnut plank , both about 7"x 36" x 3/4" for a couple of bucks a piece.

Ric
 
I haven't had a chance to get to my local shop although I did find a couple alternatives, one a little risqué ... :o

If you search small wooden strops you get a ton of fraternity strop manufacturers. I would have never thought but did come across one selling 13.25"X.75" paddles out of maple and MDF for a decent price.

I also came across a custom *ahem* spanking paddle maker that does them out of numerous exotics. They're a bit pricey and most are impractical given their size, but he does offer custom paddles via his contact.

Obviously, I am waaaayyy over thinking this...
 
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I found some surprisingly nice wood in a local craft shop. We have a small chain here called Michael's. They had both wood and some nice leather pieces at reasonable prices. The leather in 4" x 8", was $3 per piece. They also had some smaller pieces of birch plywood that makes a good backing for a strop. 6 mm (1/4") has 5 layers and I think it was $3 or $4 for a 4 x 12 piece.

Allen
 
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