Thread: Beginner's Tip For Hanging A Strop

Hey everybody...

I'm not sure if this has ever been mentioned on SRP before, but in another thread where a member was having some issues, they mentioned not having a good place to hang their strop and had been laying it flat on their counter. I figured some of the newcomers might get some use from this tidbit. It's nothing new to a lot of you, and in fact, has been used for years and years. This is kind of one of those "so simple and obvious I should have thought of it sooner but just missed the obvious" things.

For about $3 US, or for free with a bit of scavenging (read: old shoe lace) you can hang your strop securely and go to town with no fear of it coming loose.

I'm in the middle of remodeling our Master Bath, and as such, have been temporarily forced to use our hall bath, which is tiny and doesn't have much in the way of anchor points. Once the remodel is complete, I'll have a proper hook to attach my strop to. My solution was to take a bit of paracord I got from Home Depot for about $3 and tie a loop using a piece of cord about 15"-18" long, before knotting. I simply slipped the cord through the ring of my strop and tied the ends using a square knot, which my days in the Boy Scouts of America taught me is nigh impossible to accidentally come untied. For those who don't know how to tie a square knot, here is a diagram:



Once you have your loop tied through the ring of your strop, you can use a cow hitch knot to secure the strop to any door knob in your house, and, short of the knob coming loose from the door, it will stay there securely until you unloop the cord. Again, for those who don't know how to tie a cow hitch knot, here is a diagram... note that the ends of the cord in the diagram will be tied using the square knot referenced above:



And there you have it. Using a 15"-18" long cord gives me the flexibility to shift in whatever direction I need to in a tight space so I'm not cramped up and stropping uncomfortably. You can obviously adjust the length to suit your own needs.

Easy, peasy, one, two, three-sy.

The one caveat is that the loop end of the strop can sometimes try and twist on you if you don't keep enough tension on the strop. On the plus side though, if you're paying attention, it can help correct you not having enough tension on the strop.

Happy stropping, everybody!