Thread: Do cut strops = garbage?

Sorry if this is a repeat... I have a few strops now, and my earliest has some cuts from when I was learning to strop. If it's sliced, is it garbage? I can work around it if needed, but wondering how bad it is to go over the sliced part.

Rubber cement often does the trick on holding down flaps.

if its minor you can just trim the flap off and sand, or as mister moo said glue it down, or make a shorter strop out of it, or strop over a shorter area. but no it isnt necessarily garbage.

Of course it depends how bad the slices are. If minor it can be repaired and we have plenty of threads on that operation. Of course if it's severe unless it's at the ends where you can avoid it then you have a problem.

A picture would help.

IMO it is bad,you can glue them,sand them whatever,they will always be a bump in the road.

Many opinions, many experiences. There's a good possibility, depending on the damage, the strop can be used in a different way. If the surface can be rehabbed and smoothed a bit you could paste it and use it as a pasted strop. I've "recycled" several leather strops into linen strops. One can paste one side and add linen to the other side and have a brand new stropping tool. Bit of creativity increases the possibilities.

I would also set it aside if it's small slices and more than a few and put compound on it or save it for something else (like as a buffer between honing and your good strop, to clean off an edge with light strokes and take up any stray abrasive or swarf that you don't want on a good strop).

It will be pretty soon if you're not there already that you very very rarely or never cut a strop.

I once had a glued-down flap that made a bump, but I set a large magic marker on it (could have use a marble or whatever), weighed down with a 3-pound weight overnight. Flattened it down nicely.