Thread: Belt for stropping

Is it a bad idea. as a money depreived college student I was wondering if an old leather belt is sufficient for stropping.

It works.


You need a nice smooth topgrain leather, but it'll work. If you have a belt that fits the description, go ahead and use it.


That said, how much does a belt cost these days? $15-25?

If you can go that little bit more, you can get a Tony Miller starter strop for ~$35 delivered, or check the classified section for the Proforma strops, they are also around $30.

Have used them myself with good results.
I have also bought new leather belting on ebay and made strops my self. The leather is a little hard, but I guess it will soften up with time. Saying that, they work fine and I get good shaving results. Cost per strop, I guess about £4.00 / $7.00 each. Worth thinking about if you want a 'new' strop. Belts work though......

I did it for 4-5 months...before I bought a TM Latigo. I worked great though.

I once used the fan belt of a 1981 Mack dump truck.........But then somebody started the truck and that
was the end of that episode.............

Originally Posted by driver/examiner

I once used the fan belt of a 1981 Mack dump truck.........But then somebody started the truck and that
was the end of that episode.............

Are you kidding me? If it was running, you could strop that blade in 2-3 seconds. That's a great idea!







Watch out for the fan blade though...

I spent two weeks in June at my grandparents house in Michigan. I forgot to pack my strop, but found an old leather belt and used it. Tell you the truth, it worked great.

Hi,
I'm a newbie to this. I understand the importance of honing, I've been honing my woodwork knives for years. So I ordered a Norton 4000/8000 waterstone, to arrive in my mailbox in a couple of days.

But, for the lapping, since my bank account now suffers from buying the Norton stone and my straight razor, I'll be using one of my leather belts. My question might be really stupid, but I'm going to ask anyway:

Which side of the belt do I use? The "rugged" inside, or the "slick" outside?

newspapper is good too

If you meant to say stropping,you want to use the slick side and make sure to not lift up the spine of the razor as you change directions.Roll the razor over on the spine.The lapping refers to precisely flattening the waterstones on a known flat surface before you hone to ensure that you start out flat and don't hone a bad bevel onto your razor.