Thread: Make your own paddle strop

Originally Posted by kasperitis

2Sharp
This might sound odd, but how hard would it be for me to take the instructions you put in the first post and pass them along to a woodworker who has little to no knowledge of strops or shaving and have them fab one for me?

My uncle has done some absolutely exquisite woodwork in the past (including a lampshade made of solid wood that actually let light through it was so thin), so I know he'd have the skill to do this. Seeing as I have NO woodworking experience though, I'm asking here before I go talk to him....

I think this is a basic wood working project. I used the handle of my TM hanging strop to trace out the handle in the 3" X 16" oak board then cut it out with a bandsaw. The 6" sander makes nice square corners where the balsa meets the oak. I rate my wood working skills from low to medium. I did it over a period of about 2 weeks. The Poly takes about 1 day to dry between coats. It could be done in a week if you did something every day.

bj

how thick does the leather need to be on a paddle strop?

Originally Posted by Doc

how thick does the leather need to be on a paddle strop?

You can use any thickness of plain leather. I like to use balsa because I think it draws better and you can get it flatter using a belt sander. You can also refresh it with the belt sander after it gets grooved and worn. The balsa is also very reasonable in price at http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXJC94&P=0
I like the 1/4" x 3" x 36". You get 8 sheets for $8 plus shipping. 3/16" thick would also work well.

bj

For the home craftsman the balsa may be an easier product to source as almost any hobby or craft store will sell it. In many cities leather sources are harder to find.

Tony

I use ash plywood on a mdf base for my bench hones. They are ugly, but flat as can be. I use rouge on them most of the time, which I apply by heating the surface with a heat gun, then rubbing the rouge stick into it (melting on contact). Once the surface is saturated, I reheat then take a straight edge and wipe off the excess. I find the binder in the rouge exposes just enough particles to provide a slow cutting but even surface.

I like everyone else's work with respect to looks, perhaps I'll make something more pretty next time I do a run.

So this was my weekend project...

alp,

It looks gorgeous - nice work.

so i have a typical newb question here. these things all look great and having recently sliced my strop almost in half i would love to make my own contraption but will any of these balsa ones replace a leather strop?

i saw one person posted that they like the balsa better then leather implying that they don't use the leather now. leather of the right texture is not an easy thing for me to find around here and a strop is even harder so if i can make something a little different to try out that would be great.

OK, I was given by my old barber his vintage paddle strop (He also gave me his 3 Filly's ).
The strop, just like the razors, is in bad shape, unfortunately.
I want to restore it so I can have it as a pasted paddle strop, specially to use the CrO paste in it.
What do you think it's the best "surface" to have CrO? Balsa or leather?

Originally Posted by 2Sharp

I used the handle of my TM hanging strop to trace out the handle

bj

Cool! I'll send out a bill <g>

Seriously though, very nice work!

We have a similar model, all stained maple to match our 4 side in production now for release in a few weeks.......same handle <g>.

Tony