Figured I'd add this as there seems to be an interested, or perhaps even a need, for the people here to be able to put together strops easily, without anything unusual or hard to find (where I am, even balsa wood is a long drive to the outskirts of town), and with a minimum of tools. All materials used are available at walmart, Lowes and chain fabric stores. You may not even need to go to the fabric store. An old pair of jeans will work. Another option is a thrift store, and some walmarts carry fabric.

Ok first off, the paddle strop

Materials needed:

Cloth
Glue
Board or plastic plank
Liquid stitch or other cloth adhesive
various other junk you should have around the house.




The cloth in this case is canvas, purchased from a fabric store. You can use any thick tough cloth. As stated, denim works well. I made two cloth hanging strops from the legs of an old pair of blue jeans. You can actually keep the top part of the jeans and use them for cut offs.

The glue I'm using to attach the canvas to the board is gorilla glue. I used wood glue the first time and had part of the fabric come off. However, other parts of the fabric held on well, so I think wood glue would be ok as long as you use enough. Even if the cloth comes off you can just go to walmart and get some gorilla glue later.

The board is just a piece of poplar from Lowes, cut in half. Its about 14X 1.5, I think. This is the only thing that really requires any tools, but you can get by with a cutting wheel from a dremel in a pinch.


This stuff is the real star of the show:




The problem with most fabric is that it isn't thick enough to make a proper strop. A single piece of canvas or denim mounted on a board makes for a poor strop. This stuff lets you paste the pieces of fabric together so that you get the equivalent of a very thick piece of fabric. You can buy liquid stitch at Walmart. Another cloth adhesive might work better, but this stuff has worked fine for me.

Ok, enough preamble. First step- measure out the fabric that you're going to cut. You'll need at least three layers. I'm using four in this, so there are four rectangles I marked off (one is underneath the board). Cut the marked shapes out. You don't want any wrinkles or creases in the fabric. If there are some there, wet the strips and hang dry them over something thick, like a shower rod.




Now, apply glue to the board. Since I'm using gorilla glue, I wetted the board and fabric before applying the glue. Its isn't a bad idea to wet the fabric even if you use wood glue. It should help the glue distribute more evenly, and will also help when you're getting the fabric flat.



Put the fabric on the glued board. Forcefully run a dowel or something similar over the first layer of canvas to make sure that it is flat and level. Smooth out any bumps or air pockets. You'll notice in the pic that part of the fabric is curling up. That's no big deal. G glue takes a little while to adhere, and as long as the fabric has been stretched in the right shape it should be fine. Just make sure its properly in place before the next step



Place another board on top of the glued canvas. Either clamp it or use weights to hold it in place. (You don't have to use actual weights as in the picture, anything heavy will do) Wait for the glue and fabric to dry. Liquid stitch does not work well with water when it is applied, so make sure that everything is dry before going to the next step.



While we're here, I think I should mention I think this is the best cheap and easily available anvil you can use for peening pins. I've seen people drilling dents in hammers, but I'd just pick one of these up. Its just a 2.5 pounder, so its cheap, small and handy.



Continued in next post.