Thread: What makes a good strop?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

If you have a quality piece of leather free from all defects and nice and smooth you probably have a great candidate for strop leather. More money does not buy you more performance. It simply becomes a luxury item and you know how that goes.

Ditto that. Clear and clean for the leather, and if you have a method to cut it (a very sharp marking knife and a straight edge is just fine), you can make very nice strops that are user friendly even if they aren't up to the pros' visual standards (mine certainly are not).

I think it all boils down to personal preference as evidenced by this thread.... I like a relatively thin soft leather with a light draw - I find this conforms to the shape of the blade (if not straight) better and eliminates the need for x strokes when stropping. I recently upgraded to a Neil Miller cordovan 3" strop and much prefer it to the SRD English bridal strop I was using for a long time. I also prefer linen to synthetic webbing - it's a bit more aggressive.

PM me and I can hook you up with one of my lightly used English bridal strops if you're interested...

John

Skill has a lot to do with it in my opinion. First strop was a nice hanging affair, unfortunately left in a hotel. Top tip: don't hang it on the back of a door!

Made an emergency (now permanent) strop out of an old piece of quite inflexible and relatively short leather I had knocking around. It's not going to win any beauty contests with those garden string hangers...

I strop better now on that by learning to vary the pressure and stroke than I ever did on the 'real' strop. I'm sure a better strop will make a difference and this is next on my list of improvements, but the point is not to worry too much as even a basic strop can work well once you get to know it; make something, pick up an old belt, try it out. Leave your kit in a hotel and rush around for a solution in a panic :-)

Originally Posted by realdog4

Is it the type of leather, how it is treated or are there certain grades of quality?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Take care,
Jason

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TANDY LEATHER used to sell a nice strip of cowhide 3 inch X 50 inch for a very reasonable price. However you don't want to mailorder leather. You are better off to hand-select your strop leather in person so as to choose a piece that has no flaws on the surface.

You can then cut the length you desire and glue it to a piece of tile or wood. This would be classified as a bench strop.