Thread: making a paddle strop...any woodworkers?

Hey all,

So I've been shaving and stropping for a month now. In the first week of stropping, I nicked my strop to shreds. Luckily it was a simple piece of cow hide with an eyelet (although I think my wife got charged a little too much for it). I haven't nicked it since then, and I was thinking of upgrading to a better strop soon.

I would like to use part of my current strop (probably 2.5"x10") that is not nicked to make a paddle strop. I figure I can have one side leather, the other side balsa for pasting. This would also be good for travelling I think. The main issue is that I have few tools (live in an apartment) and have limited woodworking knowledge. I figure if I could get the paddle itself, putting the leather and balsa on wouldn't be a big problem. Is there anyone on here that could make a plain paddle? I guess I could try to find a local woodworker to do it. I was also thinking that if I order a new strop from Tony Miller, I could always ask him what he would charge for just an unfinished paddle.

Cheers,

Xander

Following the model of several others on the list, I made a paddle strop out of a stair spindle cut in half. Balsa and green chromox one side, leather the other. And I put leather on the other two sides because they were there. The spindle was a few dollars at the local Home Despot, and provided two paddles -- one for me, one to give away!

cass

I still haven't finished mine, but here it is:

Cool idea guys! I might hit up the local building store and see what they've got in terms of spindles.