Strop leather ?

[miltmaldo]

Hi guys . I have a question . I was at the flea-market and walked by a guy making belts . I ask if he would sell me a pies of leather . He asked me what for and I told him he said that the leather he had was cowhide and it might not work for a strop . I have a picture of it can any one tell me if this is good leather for a strop .

Thanks .

 

[TravisH]

Cow is good.

Vegetable tanned leather is best. Chemical tanned leathers may have residues that may patina/corrode some steels over time.

You don't want it too coarse or too thick. Those in the image look okay.

Used the coarser side with green compound. Use the smooth side with white compound or diamond paste.

I got veg-tanned 8x11x.0625 for $6 on sale at Hobby Lobby. Picked up a couple feet of 1x4 and 1x3 Maple at big box store for about $2/ft.

 

[stitchawl]

This leather looks fine.

And with all due respect to TravisH, use either side with any compound. The fact that the flesh side is more rough will have no appreciable effect on the results you will get with compounds. Think about it for a moment... The leather is NOT sandpaper. You don't need to think about it as 'grit size.' And the compound is working in micron-size particles. Those are a fraction of the size of a human hair. Those bumps on the leather are a whole lot bigger than a human hair. The only difference you find between the grain side and the flesh side of the leather is that there is MORE CONTACT AREA on the grain side because it's smoother. Same sort of difference found in 'interrupted diamond' sharpeners vs continuous diamond. More contact area, which equals less time spent stropping. Of course, the actual time difference shouldn't amount to more than 10-20 seconds...


Stitchawl

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

My 2 cents' worth:

I'd say try both sides of the leather with the compounds of your choosing, and see what works best for you. The 'rough' side of common cowhide is highly variable, based on the many pieces I've tried. Sometimes it'll be OK, or even good. Other times, it'll be very lumpy or inconsistent in texture or firmness, with some areas feeling soft and other areas very hard. More often than not, I've compromised and 'roughened' the smooth side with some sandpaper, which leaves a velvety 'nap' on it; that'll take and hold the compound more easily.

As Stitch mentioned, when used with compound, it won't necessarily matter if you use the rough or smooth side, depending on the individual piece. Even after sanding the smooth side, which gives it a sueded type of finish, it'll quickly smooth out and maybe even gloss over a bit with use (especially when used with wax-bound stick compounds, which take a 'shine' with some use). The sueded finish of sanded leather just allows the surface to hold more compound and accepts the application much easier with stick/crayon-type compounds; makes it easier to get even coverage that way.


David

 

[Eric@DLT]

The majority of the strops we sell use cowhide. They make for a nice strop at a good price. You will be just fine using that leather.

 

[stitchawl]

Hmmmm.... That's true... the rough finish WILL take and hold compound more easily. But ya know, I wonder... Just how much compound do we really need? I remember (with shivers) and indecent that occurred early on in my sharpening life, involving t̶w̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶d̶g̶e̶t̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶u̶c̶k̶ er.... Chromium Oxide POWDER, a paint stirring stick, and my wife turning on a fan.... Not a pleasant memory. Cleanup took forever. But the important part of this story is that most of the excess powder blew off the pain stirring stick. What remained was just a sort of greenish tinge to the wooden stick. A very pale greenish tinge. But it worked perfectly.

I keep saying, that which happens when stropping happens at the microscopic level. The blade only comes in contact with the first few micro-specks of compound at any one time


Stitchawk

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Guess I should've clarified what I meant by 'holds more compound'.

I don't mean a thick layer of it; just that the sanded leather accepts more compound, and a more even layer of it, in a light brush of the 'crayon' across the sanded surface. Compare that to trying to 'crayon' the waxy compound onto a smooth leather surface, when some compounds will sort of 'skip & skate' across the leather, leaving patchy, streaky smears of it in varying spots; it's 'barely there' in some places and too thick & sticky in others.


David

Hmmmm.... That's true... the rough finish WILL take and hold compound more easily. But ya know, I wonder... Just how much compound do we really need? I remember (with shivers) and indecent that occurred early on in my sharpening life, involving t̶w̶i̶n̶ ̶s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶r̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶i̶d̶g̶e̶t̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶u̶c̶k̶ er.... Chromium Oxide POWDER, a paint stirring stick, and my wife turning on a fan.... Not a pleasant memory. Cleanup took forever. But the important part of this story is that most of the excess powder blew off the pain stirring stick. What remained was just a sort of greenish tinge to the wooden stick. A very pale greenish tinge. But it worked perfectly.

I keep saying, that which happens when stropping happens at the microscopic level. The blade only comes in contact with the first few micro-specks of compound at any one time


Stitchawk

 

[blanex1]

i use both the thin and thicker leather's,with the 1/8'' thicker leather i use DMT diamond paste on smooth side up for out standing results,and for regular stropping with green compound i like the thiner leathers rough side up,looks like the leather you have there will work just fine,depending on witch compound you use!will determine what side you will use.[URL=http://s1157.photobucket.com/user/blanex1/media/BGBB7120.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[stitchawl]

Guess I should've clarified what I meant by 'holds more compound'.

I don't mean a thick layer of it; just that the sanded leather accepts more compound, and a more even layer of it, in a light brush of the 'crayon' across the sanded surface. Compare that to trying to 'crayon' the waxy compound onto a smooth leather surface, when some compounds will sort of 'skip & skate' across the leather, leaving patchy, streaky smears of it in varying spots; it's 'barely there' in some places and too thick & sticky in others.


David

Sorry, David. I didn't mean to imply that you were slathering it on like peanut butter. I know that you don't.
But the fact is, some folks do! And not only individuals, but even some companies that SELL pre-loaded strops, with instructions that tell the user to just wipe with an oiled rag to expose fresh compound. Makes me wonder why they bother to include the leather substrate at all! I seem to recall one of our posters who used an iron to apply a thick flat layer of compound to his strops, akin to waxing skis! I remember that when I read that, I tried stropping on the side of a one-pound bar of Chromium Oxide. Worked fine...


Stitchawl

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Sorry, David. I didn't mean to imply that you were slathering it on like peanut butter. I know that you don't.
But the fact is, some folks do! And not only individuals, but even some companies that SELL pre-loaded strops, with instructions that tell the user to just wipe with an oiled rag to expose fresh compound. Makes me wonder why they bother to include the leather substrate at all! I seem to recall one of our posters who used an iron to apply a thick flat layer of compound to his strops, akin to waxing skis! I remember that when I read that, I tried stropping on the side of a one-pound bar of Chromium Oxide. Worked fine...


Stitchawl

I was pretty sure you knew where I was coming from, so no worries. Your mention of it made me rethink how my description might be interpreted by others reading it though, which is why I clarified (or at least tried to) what I was meaning.

The 'peanut butter' comparison is pretty apt for the overdone applications. Before I knew better, I'd once tried using green compound (a lot of it) mixed with mineral oil on a strop, and it literally felt like I was stropping on peanut butter, with the same 'results' I'd fully expect from doing so (a gooey blade which wasn't getting any sharper for all my efforts).


David