Thread: Paddlestrop?

I recently lapped a paddle strop on a belt sander and then buffed it with an almost-clean wheel (to prevent buffing paste to cover the leather). It worked well and the leather is very smooth.

Yeah....so that completely didn't work. The shave off the paddle strop was so bloody uncomfortable I had to stop. I took the razor to a magnifier and found that in many places the edge had sort of a 'foil'. More paddlestropping did nothing, but the hanging strop took it right off. Is this a hint of what a strop does?

Not sure without pics but I use a horse butt on a piece of wood and have for a year. The paddle will take some of the variables out of stropping but the basics are the same. There are lots of things you can do to smooth out the leather like burnishing. The epidural layer of horse is very very thin and if you sand, (plane???) that you will wind up with a suede surface. Can you say new belt ?