Thread: Preferred strop width

Originally Posted by topherloaf

Interesting because I have some red latigo laying around that isn't very long, maybe a foot at the most and almost 4 inches wide. I was wondering if I could make a strop out of that stuff or do I have to have longer pieces? This was a good topic.

If I had that I would probably split it into 2" pieces and make a couple of pasted paddles. Alternatively leave it one piece and make a flatbed or paddle. IMO it is a bit short to make a hanging strop.

I have 3 vintage Russian 2 1/2" and 2 latigo and horse 3" strops. - I like 3" better

My current strop is 2 3/4". I recently made another cloth strop out of a cotton web belt that's 1 1/4" wide. I think 2" would be about perfect. I went with 2" considering the experience.

I gotta go with 2 inches. Started with a 2 inch, "upgraded" to a 2 and a half but slowly found that I kept going back to the 2 inch. As clavichord said in the original post, I think it gives more control.

All strops that I have tried are less than perfect flatness-wise. That makes it essentially impossible to take advantage of the full width anyway. I have seen the instructions that come with strops from well-respected strop-makers and they discuss how to deal with curl, so I assume it is a prevalent situation. It is just much more of a problem on a wide strop.

Maybe if I was going to spend two or three hundred dollars on a strop that wouldn't be a problem, but those strops are narrow anyway! Or maybe I just need to buy five or six more strops to try out!

The three is nice - straight up and down - I just have to watch about keeping it dead pan flat

The 2.5 is great on the X pattern but have not had it long enough to have an opinion if the X pattern would be easier on the 2 inch strop. The only reason I say that is that (based on my current experience) I currently feel like I would be able to do a better X with a 2 inch strop. not sure why yet.

For me the verdict is still out - I think I need to order a 2inch strop to test my theory but 3 strops with felt, linen, cotton seems a bit excessive so early on.

I like at least 2 inches of strop space, and a good long stretch of leather. My next strop is going to be a 3" for sure.

Now, after some days testing my new 2" wide TM strops, I can say that 2" really is my preferred width. And thanks for voting in this poll!