Thread: My home made strop (pics)

Hi Guys,

I finally got all the materials together to make the strop I have been planning for a number of months. The strop is made of bovine leather sourced from a specialist leather company who supply leather for high end markets like military clothing and test match cricket balls. The webbing is sourced from a local saddlery and is very thick. I am delighted with it.

My workmanship is certainly not up to the levels of Tony Miller but I am pretty proud of the way they have turned out for my first effort. See pictures below. The strops are 3" wide and I can strop my W&B meatchopper (pictured) without needing to use and X pattern. It is certainly easire to strop on this than my little dovo one!

I made two strops as I had excess leather after making my flat bed hone and my own hanging strop. If anyone wants the other strop then it is £20 ($40) delivered to anywhere. I will be happy to refund the whole amount if not satisfied. I just want to go some way to cover the costs of making my own strop.

Thanks

Rob

I like your work, Rob. How long is the effective stropping surface?

Thanks Ilija!

Actually i don't think the photos do it justice.

The stropping surface is just over 16 ins on the leather side between each line of rivets. So it is much longer than my Dovo and much stiffer and wider. I am hoping, as it is easier to strop on, I will be able to keep my edges sharper for longer using this new strop.

Very nice Bobbo!

Tony

Thanks Tony! that means a lot coming from you.

I must admit I have had to copy your design slightly but there are not many options open for making these things as i couldn't find 3" D rings so had to go with 2 inchers with the leather cut at the corners and the leather is way too thick to sew so rivets were the only option too.

I have one at home now. He's not kidding....the leather is MASSIVELY thick. It'll get it's first test strop tomorrow. I have high hopes as it looks to be a serious upgrade from the Wittex strop that I'd been using so far.

Nice looking strop!!! How long did it take to do all of that?

On another note, the W&B in the pic looks VERY similar to the one that I just received and am in the process of cleaning up. I am very anxious to see how a big wedge works. The scales on yours look just like mine. Do you happen to know if they are horn?

Again, great looking strop and congrats!!!

- Mike

Thanks Mike!

I'm glad LX emergency liked it. It took me a while to make as it was harder than I thought it would be. Cutting the leather straight is quite difficult and the leather is thick so it wouldn't cut through in one pass of the knife (despite a new blade). Getting all the holes in a line and getting the linen to hang against the leather with no creases or areas of slack also takes a degree of care and attention.

I suppose now I have the experience in making them it would take me half an hour but for the first one it was more like an hour and a half while I developed the techniques to get it made.

I'm probably going to make a few of them up next week as there has been a fair amount of interest from the UK. I have some leather samples on the way to me now.

My W&B is one hell of a blade. I am waiting for my dremel to arrive before I can restore it fully. I beleive the scales are horn.

Tony is getting serious competition here!

I have been finding that an old straight that you are not currently using makes an excellent leather cutting tool, but bobbo is right, this leatherwork lark is not as easy as it looks. Pics of my first attempt are here http://img167.imageshack.us/slidesho...361477t5k.smil