Strop Question.

[Bumblingtinkerer]

Hey guys, I got some leather in and made 4 strops. 3 of them have compound, black emery, CrOx, and jewellers rouge. The other one is plain leather but the grain is very rough. So I decided to fix it, and make it more like the finished belt I've been finishing my edge on. I took the strop, and through a process I've come to learn as glassing, I knocked down the grain, then went over it with wax to further refine the grain, and....caramelized it? I took the strop and heated it to make the wax seep in. This process immediately gave me a better edge. Has anyone ever done anything like this process? Thanks, Tink

 

[HeavyHanded]

I have used a similar process to harden up chrome-tanned leather for use as a strop. When used with a compound, the abrasive quickly becomes swamped in what remains of the wax and looses its bite. Used as a final step, your results are what count. In my opinion the wax acts a lubricant and eliminates any polishing or burnishing the leather might have provided. If you're seeing positive results you must be doing something different, maybe I used a lot more wax on mine...

It also makes a great treatment for leather to be used in a sheath. I've made a number of Kydex sheathes lined with wax-treated leather for both handgun and fixed blade - it makes the steel pretty much impervious to rust and with good retention.

 

[Bumblingtinkerer]

I have used a similar process to harden up chrome-tanned leather for use as a strop. When used with a compound, the abrasive quickly becomes swamped in what remains of the wax and looses its bite. Used as a final step, your results are what count. In my opinion the wax acts a lubricant and eliminates any polishing or burnishing the leather might have provided. If you're seeing positive results you must be doing something different, maybe I used a lot more wax on mine...

It also makes a great treatment for leather to be used in a sheath. I've made a number of Kydex sheathes lined with wax-treated leather for both handgun and fixed blade - it makes the steel pretty much impervious to rust and with good retention.

I suppose I should clarify that it's better than it was but still not as good as my old strops made of belt. For that matter none of the new, raw leather strops aren't. Any idea what's going on with it?

 

[HeavyHanded]

I suppose I should clarify that it's better than it was but still not as good as my old strops made of belt. For that matter none of the new, raw leather strops aren't. Any idea what's going on with it?

I'm one of the last folks to talk to re leather for stropping, I generally use paper and/or newspaper on a Washboard. But the sticky at the top of the page includes instructions I linked to, provided by user member "stitchawl" for how to case vegetable tanned leather. If its chrome tanned it likely won't work well except maybe with compound. The vegetable tanned can be compressed and the available silica level near and at the outer surface increased somewhat. Is possible your old belt strops were compressed in a similar manner just by wearing them and getting sweaty or wet a few times, am not sure about the silica levels under those conditions, but my older belts are mighty compressed compared to the newer ones.

I'm also not sure how this works exactly (the silica migration part) as the water soluble silicates are salts, not oxides. Presumably there are also insoluble silica oxides that are capable of being pushed around by hydraulic means, the observations of so many cannot be delusion. So I would do a search in the stropping sticky, find the recipe, and give it a try - is not difficult as I recall. The leather must be vegetable tanned. Otherwise you could wrap several layers of newspaper around a bench stone and give that a try as a finishing step - is often recommended to novice straight razor users that have no good finishing strops as yet. Leather can have a lot of variables, good luck and report back if you try something different.

Martin