Strop leather

B

BChou-E29

Joined
Dec 4, 2009
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503
Hey guys, I was thinking about making my own bench strop. For the leather part, will any leather do? I have some 8-9 oz. vege tanned leather as well as some thinner 4-5 oz. leather. Thanks for the help guys.
 
I use a piece of tanned deer hide off a deer i shot...the part that runs over the top of the front shoulders is the thickest and works fine.......FES
 
Veg-tanned leather is fine. The hardcore sharpening nuts 'round here like horsehide too, but it's more expensive. But for 'regular' leather, you do want to make sure to use veg-tanned, though. Other tanning methods use harsh chemical means to tan the leather, which will strip away most of the natural silicates (abrasives) in the leather.

Assuming all other factors are equal, the only differences you might see, between thicker & thinner, is a greater tendency to 'round' the edge on the thicker (presumably 'softer') stuff. My personal preference is toward the thinner leather, mainly for that reason.
 
Okay, I'll stick to the vege tanned. I might make two strops, one with the thicker leather for my more obtuse edges like with my hawks and choppers and another with the thinner weight for my finer EDC edges. Thanks for the insight guys, I'll try to post pics when I'm done :)
 
I'll be using the thinnest, hardest piece of veg tanned on a hardwood strop for my next one. Make sure you leather is of an even thickness. The first one I made, which works well-enough, is a little lumpy and my block of oak is a very old piece and was warped...so it isn't really geometrically flat. Again, it works well enough, but it would work better if it were perfectly flat and the leather was harder and more even.

The next one is in the works. I will probably just buy some wood to get a perfectly flat piece instead of scrounging from old rough-sawn stuff from the barn.
 
HoosierQ said:
I'll be using the thinnest, hardest piece of veg tanned on a hardwood strop for my next one. Make sure you leather is of an even thickness. The first one I made, which works well-enough, is a little lumpy and my block of oak is a very old piece and was warped...so it isn't really geometrically flat. Again, it works well enough, but it would work better if it were perfectly flat and the leather was harder and more even.

The next one is in the works. I will probably just buy some wood to get a perfectly flat piece instead of scrounging from old rough-sawn stuff from the barn.
Click to expand...

Good call. I'll probably use some of the hardboard cut offs I got lying around and level it off on my granite plate with sandpaper.
 
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