Thread: hi newbi strop question

Hi so are leather strops suposta be buttery smooth and lokk like shiny paper or like regular tanned leather. Im trying to make a leather strop and the smoothest leather i can get my hands on is i think its like 1/8th or 1/16th of an inch thick goat skin or leather idk but its orange i just dont know if i have to sand it or leave as is like smooth leather that you can see the grain in or if not how do i sand it if it needs to b buttery smooth with no texture idk plz some one help me out

you can go to tandy leather and pick up a 3" x 60" piece of vegetable tanned latino for very little money. Unless you are just experimenting and playing around. I think the trick is to start out with a good piece of leather. All the guys that have made them all use veg tanned.

Any spesific leather cheap? I want a good leather and i dont have a tandy leather ilive in oshawa ontario.

Tandy does do mail order and web sales too. Having spent most of my life on a remote set of islands it has been a lot of catalogue and web shopping. Compared to before web shopping is awesome.

I'm basicaly just wondering if the regular tan leather natural and textured works or does it have to be smooth as paper?

I have several strops and I wouldn't describe any of them as smooth as paper. The smoothest one I have is a horsehide strop, and even it has texture. Funny you should say paper because you can use newspaper to strop on too. Regular leather texture is what most of mine are.

OK thank you in just seeing all these stropsand they look smooth as paper on videos and oily i didnt know if they were suposto look like that or natural leather in any case iv got goat but what other types of leather can i use?? A big list would b much apreciated lol thank you

Oh and one last question. Do i put compond on it or leave as is im just useing as daily strop?

The most common strops are cow leather. The higher end ones are horse. They are also made out of kangaroo. The leather is usually vegetable tanned. I don't know enough about leather to even tell you the different kinds of tanning. The leather is available in different finishes, I have no idea how that is accomplished but it give the surface a sticky or slick feel that is referred to as draw. Draw has nothing to do with how well it does its job it is just a personal preference.

P.S.
You don't use pastes on a daily basis they are only for recovering or finishing an edge