Thread: making a paddle strop with new tandy leather

Hello everyone,

I want to make a paddle strop two sided with one side with CrOx. I have been doing a lot of searching through the old threads but there are a few things I'm not so sure about. So I have a few questions that I hope some experienced people would be willing to answer.

What I have: So I bought some maple 2'x3"x3/4" from lowes (I picked up the straightest one I could find), and 3"x50" cow leather from tandy's. I am planning on flatting the maple using my granite tile with wet/dry sandpaper.

The problem is my leather is a little warped in spots.

So my questions are mainly in regards to prepping the leather for gluing it to the paddle.

How do I remove these warped areas, do I massage in mineral/neats oil on it to remove the warps? and do I put it on both sides? but would this inhibit me from gluing the leather onto the paddle? And would the oil prevent the CrOx from sticking?

Or should I just glue the leather to the paddle and then sand the leather flat w/ 800 girt wet/dry?

Thanks in advance,

This exactly why I used fasteners, because it's easier to stretch the leather.

Originally Posted by str8dave

Or should I just glue the leather to the paddle and then sand the leather flat w/ 800 girt wet/dry?

I have only gone to 320 grit... The strops that I have sent out everyone seems to think that they have a good draw...

Originally Posted by NoseWarmer

I have only gone to 320 grit... The strops that I have sent out everyone seems to think that they have a good draw...

Thanks, I guess I will probably just glue it to the board and clamp it down then lap it working my way up to 320.