Thread: Homemade Strop Help

I am brand new to all of this, and am wanting to make my own strop. I have plenty of leather, as I repair and restore furniture for a living and keep many scraps from leather furniture. I have stripped much of it down to bare leather and want to know how to make a strop that is serviceable. Nothing fancy, but will do the job. It is all furniture grade leather, like from seat cushions, so is not thick and rigid. Looking forward to all the help.

Originally Posted by Sammer

I am brand new to all of this, and am wanting to make my own strop. I have plenty of leather, as I repair and restore furniture for a living and keep many scraps from leather furniture. I have stripped much of it down to bare leather and want to know how to make a strop that is serviceable. Nothing fancy, but will do the job. It is all furniture grade leather, like from seat cushions, so is not thick and rigid. Looking forward to all the help.

If you work on furniture you have access to some wood and woodworking tools. Think about making a leather covered wood backed hone out of a pair of thin (1/4") stock separated by half inch blocks at each end one of which is a handle.

If the wood is thin it will have some give and bounce. One side can be bare leather and the other side dressed with CrOx.

You might also make a box strop or a paddle strop.

With wood backing the thickness of the leather is not an issue.

Others may have ideas and hints on how to make a good one
or links on the web of some.

If you find you love it make a couple more and sell them on the classified

I am new also but I have a strop that I bought cheap. They just made it 2" wide and 23" long and put a metal eyelet at the top about 2" from the end and used a leather lace for tieing the strop up for use. Quick and simple. To do a fancy one you could use a d-ring for handle and use a piece of leather and 2 screw rivets to attach the d-ring handle. They used a rectangle snap swivel at the other end for hanging up. They used a piece of leather and 2 screw rivets to attach the rectangle snap swivel. The strop is really nice and 2 1/2" wide x 23" long including length of snap swivel and d-ring at the ends.

Red Latigo from the tack shop, cut 3"x26", about 9-10oz, chicago screws and 2.5" d-rings. Cut with a razor knife and punched with a.......punch and a board.Cut the top and bottom a little too narrow for the d-rings. Didn't have much for leather working tools and NO leather working experience and here is what I ended up with, this was before I broke in the leather so it is still very glossy in the pics,



Also got some 3" black fabric from SRD for the back, some how my holes matched the pre-made holes in the fabric . Built one for me and one for sbrouwers. Awsome strop. Little rough but not too shabby.

A coworker had some leftover leather scraps from a project, so he gave them to me when I asked where to get leather in town. Since it was a scrap, it was an odd shape. I managed to get 2 long pieces about 2.5" wide out of the best part (ie smoothest). I punched a hole in the end and used a leather thong (I think that's the term for a skinny piece of leather you tie up, right?) to make a loop at one end. I attached the loop to a towel rack with some cord, and it works fine. My leather is pretty thick though. I think it is intended for making saddles (lots of equestrians in my area). If your leather is very thin, you will want to take the above advice and make a paddle strop.

You can make a nice strop by going to TANDY LEATHER and buy a 3" x 50" strip of top grain cowhide. Do not mail order it. You need to hand select the strip to avoid any imperfections in the surface of the leather.

The one I made is my primary strop. It really works well untreated. Rub it frequently with the palm of your hand to keep it soft.

Jerry
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