Thread: Making a paddle strop

Hello everyone,

I am new to straight razor shaving. I just bought my first razor here in the classified section and I was trying to save a few bucks buy making my own leather paddle strop. I saw tutorial here on how to make them and thought I give it a shot. I got a paint mixing stick from lowes and a piece of leather from woodcrafts. I glued the leather strip on to stick and got some glue on the leather and it wont come off. is the strop done for or will the glue eventually wear off? also the paddle seems to be warped a little does that matter?

thanks,

Mafuzul

I think the paint stick may be too thin for a paddle ,, just my opinion, and kinda narrow also , I,m not sure about getting the glue off though tc

i would hesitate to use it with the glue on the leather, i don't think it would be good for the edge of the razor. might be able to sand it off.(work down to as fine a grit as you can. as for warp it would depend on which way. a hanging strop has a little warp if you think about it since you don't (and can't) pull it completely flat.

You can also make a bench strop fairly easily.
Woodworker friends, cabinet shops often have 1"x 3" or 1"x4" cast offs. 16" +/- would work.
Stick on rubber feet or inner tube scrap for the feet.
And there are lots of glue choices for the leather to wood contact.

Thanks for the inspiration - I'm going to put this on a project list...

Smooth shaving...

the warp is going upward, so technically I would be pushing down when I strop the blade

I'd go with a cast off 2x4 first, but you can epoxy another paint stirrer (or two) to the first one and then clamp it flat, or stack enough weight on it to make it lay flat.

A 5 gallon Paint sticks works fine, but wider is better. I used 5 gal paint stick to experiment with paste, worked great. Cut some ¼ in hard board or MDF to 3 in width and about 16 inches for a 12 in paddle. Leave enough room to hold it down on the bench or table. Some rubber drawer liner glued to the back helps hold it in place.

What kind of glue did you use? If it is water based, water will get it off. Read the label, WD40 will get most solvent glues off. It is also great for sticky tape and label residue removal.

I use yellow wood glue. All it does is hold it to the leather, does not have to be super strong. Paint it on with a brush go easy at the edges so it will not squeeze out much.

Your home improvement stores sell pre-cut wood at a size that makes great paddle strops. They're usually found near the molding dept. I use either oak or poplar, 2 1/2" wide, 18" long. I use 6" to form the handle and end up with a 12" working surface. Glue your choice of leather to one side and you can paste or attach another type of surface to the other side (balsa wood, canvas, polypro). In the paint dept. (Lowes) buy a can of spray adhesive medium strength, follow the directions for application. Spray adhesive will hold the substrate (leather, canvas, balsa,etc) to the wood securely but also allow it to be removed if desired in the future. I've changed out the leather and the linen after experimenting on a few.
My two favorite paddle strops are a 12" model with latigo (cowhide) on one side and pasted canvas on the other side. I use this for knives. A 18" paddle with horse butt on one side and pasted balsa on the other. I use this one to freshen up my razors. The 12" model is made from poplar and the 18" model is oak. You can stain/seal the paddle before applying the leather and other materials, make it look as nice as you want. Great fun for a DIY project.

Next time you are at Woodcraft, look at the 3 x 1 inch hard wood stock. Much more stabile than paint sticks.

Hello, I'm back, I still using the paddle strop that I made, and am thinking of buy the real thing from SRD.

Question: is the rough side of the paddle strop just the back (inside, or other side) of the leather? I still have some pieces left from what I bought and if thats the case, I can try to use that for a while.

thanks