Thread: Stropping & Belt Sanders

While web surfing I stumbled on this web site http://www.chippingaway.com/WoodWork...rSharpener.htm basically it's a belt sander converted to sharpen and hone knives and other tools. My question is could this be used to strop a straight razor after I've done my initial prep work on the Norton 4/8 stone. I was thinking of looking to get a leather belt from Hand American as an up grade to what ever the machine came with. Would I treat the leather with .5 chromium oxide or not? Is the belt to narrow for straight razor use? It looks like a 1inch belt. If I tried to strop a razor on a machine like this would a round the edge? Hand American advertises their belts can be used for use on knives and straight razors. I have never seen this method discussed anywhere however. I am interested in exploring this further but need more information. Do any of you know more about this. Thanks Kim

Lee Valley offers these as sharpeners also.

I wouldn't use them for stropping a razor blade. I think the speed could heat up the blade too quickly. The thin width of the leather and the speed of the belt could result in uneven stropping. The most important point is that a catch, should one occur, could be disastrous.

Any other ideas??

About 1 year ago a friend had Keith at Hand American make him a leather belt for a 4"x36" belt sander. It was treated with 0.5 chrome oxide. He used it to sharpen plane blades used in block planes. It worked very well. The issue is the joint of the leather. It must be at an angle and super flat and uniform in thickness.
All that being said I cannot see any benefit to be had for straight razors, especially for the finishing laps since there are so few laps required on the 0.5 and 0.25.

Just my two cents,

It seems to me that theoretically it would work just fine but to me there is the issue of extreme care that is needed. One false move with the razor and you can kiss it goodbye and afterall is hand stropping that big an issue anyway?

I think it's going overboard. I can see using something like that as the final polish on heavy woodworking tools like chisels, but not on a full hollow razor. There's just not very much margin for error, and I don't really see how it would be a worthwhile improvement over hand stropping. The risk vs. reward doesn't add up.

Thanks for all the insight guys, I was hesitant to make this post but curiosity was getting the better of me. As I stated in my original post I saw the Hand American web site ad stating that his leather belts were suitable for use on knives and straight razors. He even shows a picture of someone stropping a knive on a belt sander fitted with a leather belt. In the ad he states that you can strop a straight razor for a few seconds with out doing harm. Not being an expert I was thinking of ways to emulate the final stropping a razor goes through at a factory. Things like blade temp. and the speed at which the leather belt might be traveling on the machine are important factors that had not occurred to me. I guess I was just looking for that little extra something. I can get my razors pretty sharp but consistency has been an issue for me. Thanks again to all that replied.