Thread: Help making custom strop.

Greetings gentlemen,

I am looking to make a strop and require some assistance. I was about to order some gear from SRD and turns out shipping costs would be as much as the strop itself. I checked for strops on european sites and the ones that meet my needs cost a lot. I have a friend who is crafty with leather and she agreed to help me make a custom strop.

My requirements are:
1. good leather that gets the job done
2. 3" width
3. canvas side
4. some form of decoration to make it my own

1) I am looking to make a strop from cow hide but i want to know how it needs to be proccessed in order to serve its purpose of stropping a straight razor. I'm not familiar with the terminology but i hope you get what i am asking for here. Basically what kind of cow hide do i need to buy and how thick should it be?

3) Any ideas what to use for the canvas side? It should serve the purpose of carrying chromium oxide for a light refresh.
4) Was thinking pressed initials, burning is an option and so is gold. All sorts of recommendations are welcome.

Looking forward to your suggestions.
I promise to upload pictures when the project is finished.

Any smooth flat leather will work, especially for your first strop as you learn. You will probably nick the leather so make it replaceable, using Chicago screws and a leather punch. Tandy Leather or some Ebay sellers have all you need. Thickness also does not matter as long as it is flat.

Traditionally Linen was used as a secondary cleaning strop, but Nylon or Polyester strapping or Cotton or Polyester Canvas work well.
For the initials, they can be cut or stamped or both. Again Tandy has what you need and also instruction on how to do it.

For leather you can spend as much as you wish on different leather finishes and types, but really until you perfect your stropping technique they will not make much difference.

Post photos of your progress.

What are you guys talking about, please do not take this thread out of context. Thanks

Anyone that sells leather should know what you need. Like Marty says go very cheap on your first strop. Every little nick in a nice strop will kill you and your going to nick the heck out of your first. I should say chances are your going too. Buy enough for 2 strops and practice on a plain one until your sure your past the learning stage or wait and make a real nice one later. I think Neil Miller makes a nice beginners strop and is in your neck of the woods.

Who says I am a beginner? My junior member status on SRP? That does not mean anything to m but thank you for the comment!

Originally Posted by rcf1023

What are you guys talking about, please do not take this thread out of context. Thanks

Your going to have to be a little more specific with your question. I was about to give you a sarcastic reply:<0)

Don't worry about it, I fugured it out, thanks

Originally Posted by rcf1023

Don't worry about it, I fugured it out, thanks

Ignore the PM then :<0)

If the OP is still around, I have made a couple of strops. Had some horsehide a friend bought from Keith DeGrau (HandAmerican) sourced especially for that purpose. I used a pro carpet layer's straight edge to mark my cuts, standard pro barber's length and width, 2 1/2"X23". I cut one freehand with a carpet knife and a double slotted personna blade. The other with a carpet layers loop pile cutter with a double slotted personna installed. The loop pile cutter was a bit more precise.

Used a Whitney punch that is an industrial quality hand tool for punching holes in tattoo machine springs to put the necessary holes in the strop. Not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination. Where the rocket science comes in is treating the hide after all of that. I'm not sure what each of the makers do to their particular strops but Keith DeGrau gave me some stuff to go with over the phone. Swore me to secrecy so I won't give it up unless under extreme duress.

I just stained the strops and used the hardware I got from him. Hangers and like that. Did a PIF with them after using them awhile. Funny thing is, I didn't use any of the prep techniques Keith told me about. They might have been better if I had, but they worked just like razor strops anyhow.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

The strop is now done. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Only problem was the canvas side, which i bought linen for but didn't end up using. How thick it should be, the pattern of its weave and type of material can vary. I've read a fair bit about it and seems like people prefer different fabrics. I had a 2sided strop in mind but ended up making it onesided. Thanks to J. it came together quickly and to my liking. Definitely recommend making your own because it was great fun!

Cheers !