I know people here share their knowledge and experience freely. we give our advice and we don't often know what the person did with it. I wanted to let Stichawl know that I took his instructions and followed it in making some leather strops.
I started out with 7/9 oz vegetable tanned horse butt leather.
Here is the piece I've cut out and wetted in warm water for about 20 seconds after an hour and getting ready to "bone" it with a marble rolling pin and a flat marble tile while watching tv. I was catching up on episodes of Person of Interest and Dancing With The Stars.
After boning it for an hour and 15 minutes and letting it dry flat between some marble tiles over night, here are the two pieces ready to be glued to a couple of 3" x 10" x 1" basswood pieces.
Glued together and clamped down for the one hour set and 16 hour cure.
Trimming the excess leather.
And the finished products waiting for the leather shoe cream. I'm not sure if this is the right shoe cream since it also says polish but it's the only I can find. I've put some on a piece of leather I trimmed away to see the difference tomorrow.
I also have a couple of blocks that I'll sand down finer than what they are now down to 7000 grit sandpaper. One I'll keep bare and the other I'll spray with some .25 micron polycrystalline diamond. Since I've been convinced that diamond spray will just be wasted on the leather and works better on a harder surface.
Did I save money? Certainly not. Did I get better quality equipment that will make a difference? It remains to be seen. But I did like the going through the experience. And, for that, I thank the willingness of people here to share their knowledge and, especially, Stitchawl for his knowledge in leather strops.
I started out with 7/9 oz vegetable tanned horse butt leather.
Here is the piece I've cut out and wetted in warm water for about 20 seconds after an hour and getting ready to "bone" it with a marble rolling pin and a flat marble tile while watching tv. I was catching up on episodes of Person of Interest and Dancing With The Stars.
After boning it for an hour and 15 minutes and letting it dry flat between some marble tiles over night, here are the two pieces ready to be glued to a couple of 3" x 10" x 1" basswood pieces.
Glued together and clamped down for the one hour set and 16 hour cure.
Trimming the excess leather.
And the finished products waiting for the leather shoe cream. I'm not sure if this is the right shoe cream since it also says polish but it's the only I can find. I've put some on a piece of leather I trimmed away to see the difference tomorrow.
I also have a couple of blocks that I'll sand down finer than what they are now down to 7000 grit sandpaper. One I'll keep bare and the other I'll spray with some .25 micron polycrystalline diamond. Since I've been convinced that diamond spray will just be wasted on the leather and works better on a harder surface.
Did I save money? Certainly not. Did I get better quality equipment that will make a difference? It remains to be seen. But I did like the going through the experience. And, for that, I thank the willingness of people here to share their knowledge and, especially, Stitchawl for his knowledge in leather strops.
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