Thread: Chrome tanned

Is chrome tanned leather ok?

I found this on ebay uk

It is 7" wide tapering to 3.5" by 59", so i reckon there are two or three strops in it, maybe one little 2 inch wide one as well. If i bought would any other Uk member be interested in a piece?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MakeTrack=true

Honestly I'm not really sure weather or not chrome tanned leather is good for a strop. I do know that mostly the traditional tanning methods are used for strop leather ie. bark or vegetable tanning and that chrome tanned leather is no good for stamping or carving.
I did notice a few things about the piece up for auction. It is about half again as thick as Tony's best strops on average making it very heavy and the seller admits stiff. It is already heavily finished, unless the finish is right it will be very difficult to refinish. The belly is one of the harder areas to work with because of the varying thickness of the leather there and the general poor condition of the piece of hide that the cow dragged through the mud for its entire life.

Personally unless I inspect a belly carefully I don't buy it, even if all I want is a belt.

Belly leather is very prone to stretching and will have odd markings on the surface, basically cellulite where there is fat leaving wrinlke in the hide. I would prefer something up near the back myself. 9 to 10oz leather will be around 3/16" thick, 5 to 7oz will be around 1/8" The thick stuff can be nice if flexible enough.


Tony