Thread: Resurfacing a leather strop, you can do it

I'll bet a little sandpaper on top of that and you would have it as smooth as the other side

I use an orbital sander with 150 grit paper.

I've had good luck with a vibrating sander with 150 grit followed by some 400 grit stock.

Martin

I have use sandpaper before, on my antique shell horse hide to refresh the surface. It worked good on it but the leather on this strop was much coarser on the unfinished side. When I hit it with sandpaper, it just scuffed up more shag, so I gave it a shave.

The sandpaper technique works well in adding a bit of tooth to the smooth side but on rough leather it just seems to rought it up even more. Most belt blanks, etc.... are split with a wide knife like tool to get reduce the thickness to what is needed, basically a rigid mounted bench plane. The shearing action leaves a textured, but flat surface. With hand planing one does still need to maintain a flat surface across the strop or you will have little surface contact.

Tony