Thread: How to: Easily make a pasted balsa strop

Just finished making a homemade balsa strop and thought I'd post here since it's so easy. I did this because I'm a newbie who has blown the budget for a while and can't buy one and also because it's so dead easy that even I, who have zero craftsman abilities, could do. Hopefully I can figure out how to get the pictures to post on here.

This literally requires 6 things. A porch or stair spindle from Home Depot ($2), a piece of Balsa from a craft store ($3), something to make one small 2" straight cut, a utility knife, glue, and some sand paper. I saw the spindle at Home Depot and noticed that if cut in half it would make a great base for the paddle and had a nice looking handle built right in! I simply cut the spindle in half, cut some balsa to fit the end, glued it on and sanded it to lap it flat. Cost about $5 and took about 10 minutes. See results below. The last picture is what the spindle looks like together.

Brilliant - someone buy that man a Guinness!

Originally Posted by clrobert60

Brilliant - someone buy that man a Guinness!

Yeah, what he said lol. I can't take all the credit though. I was actually looking for a picket fence slat as was suggested by Max-S over at B&B and they didn't have one so I kept looking and almost missed this idea until I visualized the spindle cut in half and viola, a nice looking paddle strop for someone who couldn't cut two straight lines.

very nice, can't wait to see the finished product!

It pretty much looks the same finished since the diamond paste is so light. Obviously a Chrome Ox paddle would be green on top. I may eventually stain it to make it look nicer but for now it's finished in my book and was used last night to put a good edge on a razor.

I love it!!!!!
Now that was using the ole Noggin there

Thanks for this, I think I am going to have to give it a go!

Rodd, good to see you over here as well. I'm splitting my time between B&B for DE shaving and here for straights! Pretty new to straights and here though.

great one only 1 suggestion.don't you think it is a little heavy?if you can make thinner base it should be great AND MAKE 1 FOR ME.

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

if you can make thinner base it should be great AND MAKE 1 FOR ME.

It would cost more to ship it than it's worth! Since I made two out of the materials they are more like $4 each. Seriously, if you have a hand or circular saw and a Home Depot you can make this by cutting the spindle off at the "handle" with one straight cut.

The weight is actually not too bad. The wood (pine?) is fairly light and I never just hold it up, usually you rest the end of a paddle strop on the edge of a table or something so I'm not really holding up the weight of it anyway. Here's it's twin brother I finished tonight with Cr3O2.