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- Jul 16, 2011
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sooo whats a good "high value" strop to get?
edit: also good compounds to get?
and where to get both?
edit: also good compounds to get?
and where to get both?
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Strop
- Thread starter TheGoldenWalrus
- Start date
Well I like balsa wood with green compound. I have, for the time being, forsaken my leather bench strop in favor of Balsa wood. I put the compound right on there.
We gotta be kind of careful on this board telling each other about websites due to the rule...dealspotting, supporting non-members and the like. I think if your Googled "bench strops", green stropping compound, DMT diamond stones...you start to converge on a couple of very good places to find what you're looking for. Others may be braver than I.
We gotta be kind of careful on this board telling each other about websites due to the rule...dealspotting, supporting non-members and the like. I think if your Googled "bench strops", green stropping compound, DMT diamond stones...you start to converge on a couple of very good places to find what you're looking for. Others may be braver than I.
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2011
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eh, just found about Stropman, anyone know if the strops and compounds they sell are good?
get the knives plus strop block, it is excellent, it comes preloaded with green compound and gets hair whittling edges in no time. here is the link to the website: http://www.knivesplus.com/KP-STROP8-STROPBLOCK.html it is only $20 and it is the best strop that ive used
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2011
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Stropman is great. He makes good quality strops that put a razor edge on many of my knives. I bought of stops/compound from him plenty of times.
Oh and yes his strops/compound are performing great for me thus far.
It's actually difficult to buy a 'bad' strop.
What is easy is to 'over pay' for a strop. And that seems to be the norm.
$10 for a piece of vegetable tanned leather 12"x12" will give you 3-4 strops.
Some free scrap lumber will give you blocks to glue them to.
$4-$5 will buy enough CrO2 compound to last a lifetime.
3 or 4 strops for $15? That isn't over-paying. And your 3-4 stropS will be every bit as good as the ONE you paid $20 for. They just might not be quite as pretty. Unless you use a coping saw and some sandpaper...
Stitchawl
What is easy is to 'over pay' for a strop. And that seems to be the norm.
$10 for a piece of vegetable tanned leather 12"x12" will give you 3-4 strops.
Some free scrap lumber will give you blocks to glue them to.
$4-$5 will buy enough CrO2 compound to last a lifetime.
3 or 4 strops for $15? That isn't over-paying. And your 3-4 stropS will be every bit as good as the ONE you paid $20 for. They just might not be quite as pretty. Unless you use a coping saw and some sandpaper...
Stitchawl
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2011
- Messages
- 433
ok then so its probably cheaper to make a strop then.... so wheres a good place to buy some vegetable tanned leather then?
Tandy Leather. You do want to be kind of choosey here. The cheapest thing are bellies. Bellies are terrible for just about everything but knife sheath welts and some people don't even like that...they take dye differently. You can find half shoulder usually for about $19 and that'd make 20 strops or more. They also sell some scraps or remnants...that'd be you best bet to find a piece about the right size. Look for leather with few blemishes and that feels equally thick. You can glue a lumpy piece of leather to a perfectly flat board and you have a lumpy strop...which'll work but it's not the best.
I do leather crafts and regularly by $50 worth of leather so leather is always on hand for me.
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- Apr 12, 2009
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- 13,649
That's what I did, and haven't regretted it. Bought one of the half-shoulders (I think) for about $17 a few years ago. That was about 5.5 square feet of leather (as mine was marked), and it'll last me a lifetime of 'experimenting' with strops. When used with compound, the character of the leather itself becomes less important, so long as it's relatively smooth and uniform on the surface. And there are ways to enhance the performance of the leather too, so it can work well on it's own. Take a look back at some of Stitchawl's posts on how to do that...
This doesn't seem right. The cheapest I can find is $41.94 for a half shoulder.
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/99606-11.aspx
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/99606-11.aspx
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You might check to see if there's a Tandy store near you. Not sure why the online prices are so high, but I picked up my section of leather in one of their stores, and they seem to keep a lot of inventory at 'sale' or otherwise steeply-discounted prices.
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2011
- Messages
- 2,090
+1.
The strop block is worth its weight in gold. There's no need to make your own unless it's a DIY project. If you want a good strop that is pre-made and easy to maintain, the strop block is the way to go. It's incredibly easy to maintain due to the way it is made. Compound is melted into olive oil and hot worked into leather. When it dries, there is a thick layer of compound on the strop which partially penetrates into the leather. When the strop gets loaded and glazed with metal, you dip a finger in olive oil and just rub fresh compound to the surface. Amazingly, it actually works. A few drops of oil and 1 minute of rubbing with your finger, and you get a nice, clean, swarf-free surface of fresh compound. Then you are ready to strop again. I've had mine for more than a year, and going strong. The folks at Knives Plus tell me they've been using the same Strop Block for years.
That said, I am learning the art of Japanese water stone sharpening now, which means doing all the work of burr removal on the stones, which is quite a challenge but also negates the strop block. If you've done all your work on the 6k water stone and finish on bare leather, you should get an edge that is even better than anything you could get with a chromium oxide loaded strop. I'm not there yet, but getting closer. I'll keep the strop block for when I go with ceramic or diamond stones.
Or if you want 8 strops for the price of one. When you purchase a pre-made mounted strop, you are paying for the time and labor the shop put into the wooden block, not the leather strop (unless you purchase a strop made by a company that properly cases the leather before mounting it, and that's only needed if the strop is to be used without compound.)
If you are going to be using compounds on your leather strop, it's a matter of 10 minutes work to make four 12"x3" strops from a square foot of leather at the cost of about $10. The wood is free from a home center scrap pile (or a paint shop's stirring stick) and you probably have the glue in house already. Almost any glue will suffice to hold the leather to the wood.
Of course, some folk just like to spend money.
Stitchawl
The JRE must be better. It costs more. (I think they probably age their wood longer...)
Stitchawl
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2012
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- 345
added a white side to a knives plus strop block
plus i got a heavy duty paint stirrer and glued leather on it and put 1 and 1.5 micron diamot paste.
tada! home grown hehe
Lately I have been using denim for a strop, with the compound on it of course. We all have jeans that are worn out and probably should be tossed. Recycle them into strops!
I like the way they work even better than leather, after using leather strops for about 30 years.
The well known discount tools store (something about cargo in the port I think), has green compound for cheap and it works great. Crayon it onto the denim that you have glued down to a stick (a large paint stir stick works good) or piece of MDF, and work away.
JUST DO NOT give the knife a little flip at the end of the stropping stroke, or anticipate turning the knife over to the other side. Lots of people do this and can't figure out why stropping doesn't work for them. The angle of the knife on the strop must stay the same for the entire stroke. If the blade contacts the strop for even 1/2 inch at 80 or 90 degrees you are rubbing the edge off.
Do this slowly at first so that you can watch what you are doing.
I like the way they work even better than leather, after using leather strops for about 30 years.
The well known discount tools store (something about cargo in the port I think), has green compound for cheap and it works great. Crayon it onto the denim that you have glued down to a stick (a large paint stir stick works good) or piece of MDF, and work away.
JUST DO NOT give the knife a little flip at the end of the stropping stroke, or anticipate turning the knife over to the other side. Lots of people do this and can't figure out why stropping doesn't work for them. The angle of the knife on the strop must stay the same for the entire stroke. If the blade contacts the strop for even 1/2 inch at 80 or 90 degrees you are rubbing the edge off.
Do this slowly at first so that you can watch what you are doing.