Made my own Leather Bench Strop/Hone

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06-15-2009, 05:00 AM
gssixgun

4 Attachment(s)

Made my own Leather Bench Strop/Hone

Some people refer to these as a leather bench hone I still call them a strop...
But what ever you call it I just finished this one up today... I used a 1x3x24 piece of poplar from Home Depot for the base they had 3 of these and they were on clearance today for .50 cents each :) two were straight so I bought them... The nominal size was 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 24...

I used Dap contact cement to glue the leather I bought from a boot cobbler to the wood, the leather was 3x24 so it was slightly oversize.... I clamped down the leather to the wood by using the second piece of wood and 3 C-clamps 8 hours later I ran the finished Strop on the table saw and trimmed the leather to perfect size then used a sanding block to bevel in the edges... 4 silicon bumper pads in the corners keep it from moving on a hard surface.... I am going to let it dry until I get home from work tomorrow night then put some of the new powdered Cerium Oxide on it....

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06-15-2009, 05:21 AM
Del1r1um

sweet glen, I am going to have to make one of those.. pretty good size!
06-15-2009, 05:45 AM
spazola

Sweet!

I like the length of the strop/hone/?- very nice.

Charlie
06-15-2009, 05:57 AM
Leighton

That is cool. I am not handy with tools, nor do I have any as I live in a condo. Anyone want to make me one?

Wonder if some sort of a cloth would work better than leather for crox? ie, the felt that SRD advocates or a cotton weave.
06-15-2009, 06:05 AM
bpave777

That thing is huge (I know, "That's what she said")!!

Seriously, great work Glen!

It looks like it's designed for some long laps. Would you explain why you wanted it so long?
06-15-2009, 01:21 PM
ronnie brown

long strokes always gets it their faster.
06-15-2009, 01:28 PM
sebell

Quote:

I am going to let it dry until I get home from work tomorrow night then put some of the new powdered Cerium Oxide on it....

Very cool strop, Glen! Here's where it gets
interesting... :)

- Scott
06-15-2009, 01:48 PM
gssixgun

Bjorn:
Basicaly just like Ronnie said part is you get there faster ie: less laps
But this is also a total finish strop, I designed it specifiacly for using it with the CeOx so I can do just a few very long, very smooth, very light, laps.....

Leighton:
Lynn is using the Yellowstone on his web strop, I know that works just fine, but that is like using a large crayon... I bought some of the pure powder form of the CeOx so I am going to mix it with Neatsfoot oil and try it on the leather.....
06-15-2009, 02:29 PM
Utopian

I've been using a redneck "bench strop" like that for the past year. I had scraps of wood I cut off a shipping pallet and took one that was 4" by 24" and just laid a 2" by 18" strop on top of it. I never got around to cutting the board, or even cleaning the board. I never got around to gluing the leather to the board, since I still plan on eventually cutting and cleaning the board. Still, as is, it works just great!
06-15-2009, 03:00 PM
todot62

Quote:

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I bought some of the pure powder form of the CeOx so I am going to mix it with Neatsfoot oil and try it on the leather.....

Glen,

I bought some of the CeOx as well and have no idea how to apply it to something. I have a TM practice strop that I was going to put it on. A couple of questions: Should I put it on the smooth side, or the back side of the strop? How EXACTLY do you mix it with Neatsfoot oil and apply?

Thanks,
Tod
06-15-2009, 03:41 PM
gssixgun

Quote:

Originally Posted by todot62

Glen,

I bought some of the CeOx as well and have no idea how to apply it to something. I have a TM practice strop that I was going to put it on. A couple of questions: Should I put it on the smooth side, or the back side of the strop? How EXACTLY do you mix it with Neatsfoot oil and apply?

Thanks,
Tod

I'll let you know tonight :)...... I was going to do it just like I did my CrOx and see how that works, the instructions for doing that are in the Wiki under strops....
06-15-2009, 03:52 PM
ChrisL

Mmmmmm....nice, Glen. Keep us posted.

Chris L
06-15-2009, 05:50 PM
gssixgun

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisL

Mmmmmm....nice, Glen. Keep us posted.

Chris L

Chris if you could post your instructions that you send out with your CrOx in the Wiki too that would be fantastic!!!!! Yours are very very well writen....
06-16-2009, 03:29 PM
mrsell63

CeOx strop

If you know what the ingredients are for the liquid medium in the .25 micron diamond spray bottle, you could whip up a batch of that and add your Cerium Oxide powder and spray it onto the strop. I think there is alchohol in it because it dries on the leather very fast.

If anyone knows what the formula is for that spray liquid, please post it......
06-16-2009, 04:01 PM
manah

1 Attachment(s)

gssixgun, you made nice and convenient bench hone.
I use similar.
06-19-2009, 05:21 PM
todot62

Quote:

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I'll let you know tonight :)...... I was going to do it just like I did my CrOx and see how that works, the instructions for doing that are in the Wiki under strops....

Glen,

Did you ever apply the CrOx to your strop? Let us know how you did it and how it worked! :) -->Tod
06-19-2009, 05:47 PM
McWolf1969

Thats a very nice bench strop Glen. Curious to see what ya think about the CeOx...might have to send ya a couple razors for sharpening.

Mac
06-19-2009, 06:27 PM
gssixgun

I'll do a separate thread on the Ce Ox powder there are several of us using it right now, the initial results are fantastic...
06-19-2009, 06:50 PM
Vekta

Quote:

Originally Posted by Utopian

I've been using a redneck "bench strop" like that for the past year.

If that's "redneck" that's one awesome hue of red. If gssixgun doesn't make any more to put up for sale in the classifieds at some point, I'm going to have to make one of these. I bet these would go really fast in the SRP Classifieds, specially if there were other models like a leather/fabric or a leather/ Balsa wood sided option.

*BOOKMARKED*
06-19-2009, 07:03 PM
gssixgun

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vekta

If that's "redneck" that's one awesome hue of red. If gssixgun doesn't make any more to put up for sale in the classifieds at some point, I'm going to have to make one of these. I bet these would go really fast in the SRP Classifieds, specially if there were other models like a leather/fabric or a leather/ Balsa wood sided option.

*BOOKMARKED*

You might PM Doc and see if he has some of his 4 siders left,,, because the chances of me making more of these are rather slim :( Too many restores too little time :)
06-19-2009, 08:03 PM
Pete_S

Wow, this is creepy. I made a long narrow strop to test Cerium Oxide this past weekend also. Also made of popular (from lowes), except mine is about 14 inches, I think. I used several sheets of canvas from a fabric store instead of leather. The stuff seems to work great. The only problem I had was I made the 2 sided canvas paddle strop to test two things, one was the cerium, the other was to try the effects of giving the blade a stropping with a good, fine metal polish (Mothers) as part of honing, so I wasn't sure what was giving the results. I really should try them separately to see if the polish is doing anything.

I'm looking forward to the thread, I'd like to see what others have to say about the cerium. It seemed to give a very smooth, very fine edge.
06-20-2009, 12:09 AM
Vekta

Quote:

Originally Posted by gssixgun

You might PM Doc and see if he has some of his 4 siders left,,, because the chances of me making more of these are rather slim :( Too many restores too little time :)

What I might try is buying a replacement leather from Straight Razor Design and gluing that to a board like you did and then put Balsa wood on the back side of it or something else. I really like this idea though. I'll get one of these one way or another. :hmmm:
06-20-2009, 01:29 AM
bassguy

Quote:

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I'll do a separate thread on the Ce Ox powder there are several of us using it right now, the initial results are fantastic...

I'll be glued to the screen waiting to hear about this one!
Leather? Felt? either one can be used?
06-20-2009, 03:52 AM
jballs918

Glenn,

does your leather source still have anything like this left. i have the access to the tools to make one of these just not the leather
06-20-2009, 03:59 AM
Vekta

Quote:

Originally Posted by jballs918

Glenn,

does your leather source still have anything like this left. i have the access to the tools to make one of these just not the leather

You could take a look here...

Vegetable Tanned Leather