Thread: Wood Strops

I am looking to make myself a wooden strop and planning to use either a 3"-3" or 4"-4" 12inc long piece of lumber. It seems that everyone is using balsa wood but have been having trouble finding balsa wood I have gone to the local Home-Depot and local craft stores. Either they don't have balsa wood in stock or don't have at all other then balsa wood what other pieces of lumber would make a good wooden strop? I am either planning to paste with diamond or chrome pastes .

some people use bass wood too or it seems there was a thread about using red cedar, though the bass wood that might be just as hard to find. Have you checked with a hobby store that has model air plane building supplies?

Yes went to a local craft/hobby shop and they told me that they were expecting a shipment from a new supplier but not sure when they will get their delivery. I have been thinking of getting a piece of lumber like oak and making a strop from that.

Oh and I agree - you should post were in the world you reside. It really does help in recommendations.

Good luck and happy hunting!

You can use regular wood too, make it flat and smooth and paste it, it works well.

Any smooth wood will work, Popular, Pine and even MDF will work, It is just a carrier. Paper, cardboard and cheap Foam Core work
very well also. The cheap stuff from the dollar store has more texture, that holds the paste better.

These work better than balsa, in my opinion, Nylon and Canvas even better.

3 in is plenty of width, 12-18 in length, use 4 -6 inch for knives.

Thanks guys I will let you know how it turns out now all I have to do is choice the right paste I think I will be using the chrome Ox paste. It seems that the diamond paste is a bit aggressive when it comes to stropping straight razors.

i make my own balsa wood strops and apply CrOx to it...i get the Balsa wood at Michaels, there's an aisle where they keep Balsa and Bass wood vertically in racks...

i usually grab a 26" piece of Bass wood and then use wood glue to fasten an 18" piece of Balsa to it...then I sand it down with some 220 grit sand paper..

you could also go onto Larry at Whipped Dog's website and order the poor man's strop...its a good piece of Balsa for only $10 and its treated with CrOx on one side which is 0.3 microns, and FeOx on the other side which is 0.1 micron

The likes of Toyworld have balsa wood (as wells bass tubes & pins materials) in their models areas you may have a similar toy / model shop similar in your area