Thread: Do I need leather on my paddle strop or...

...can I put the paste directly on the wood . I ordered some .25 micron diamond paste , so now I need to make a new paddle strop . I have a nice piece of poplar for the paddle and I also have the leather (12oz. veg. tanned 1-1/2" strap) . Just for kicks I took a razor I've been working on the 1k hone (taking a frown out of it) and gave it 3 laps on the poplar , and I was amazed at how sharp it got . Which leads me to another question : have any of you guys tried stropping on plain wood ?

Yes, try a search. I use balsa wood but Mparker uses something else, maybe Poplar I'm not sure. Any hard would might work as long as its sanded flat.

Sanding things flat can create a slight unwanted problem down the road. The wood may retain some sandpaper grit and these are grits many more bigger than those of the delicate hones with which we have just finished our razors. A proper retentive would scrap the wood with a cabinet scraper (properly sharpened and burnished goes without saying).

going without saying, Bruce

I've used balsa from time to time on the paddles I sell and have used plain poplar on several of my own. I've got a few nice turned handle maple paddles here I plan to try pasting the bare wood one to test.

I think Forestry Proff has done a few as well.

Tony

Thanks for the input guys . I think I'll go with the leather . I didn't think about the sandpaper grit in the wood , and I'm not going to go out and buy a cabinet scraper (I have too many tools already) , so leather it will be .