Thread: A Strop Project

Hey Guys,
A little over a week ago, Richard(Geezer) sent me some extra material he had laying around. They were two strips of leather, one finished & one raw, some strips of old fire hoses and two strips of cotton webbing. He said do something with them or toss them out. So I decides to play strop maker for the first time.

The fore hoses & webbing needed cleaning. Two of the fire hoses were single layer cotton(maybe linen) and the bright white one is a hard nylon webbing with a rubber second layer inside. All the fire hoses are 2 1/2 inch.










I soaked the hoses in BIZ for three days,,,,,then scrubbed with Colgate toothpaste,,,, let dry outside for three more days.





The BIZ pulled 90% of the stains out of the hoses.

I ordered vintage brass hooks , O-Rings and D-Loops on Ebay last week. I screwed up and forgot to Ebay the screws & had to use shiny brass screws from Tandy. I will order vintage brass screws next month & replace the shiny ones. We went to Tandy today & got supplies,,,, vintage tan stain, sealed, a big piece of raw leather, screws, punch, scissors and a crash course on leather work.





,,,,,,,,,, to be continued next post,,,,,

I worked on these today,,,,, it was fun,,, made a lot of mistakes as you will see,,,,,,Please comment on how I can make changes next time.

Thank you for looking,
Hirlau

Thank You Richard ,,,,,,,

Some of my mistakes are;
The D-Rings were smaller than I thought, though I can get my fingers in them to extend the strop.
My staining of the raw leather strop & the leather clasps that hold the hardware on the strops is poor,,,, I forgot to wear gloves,,, I have vintage brown fingers now,,,
The shiny brass screws don't match.
I can't cut a straight line,,, wasted a lot of leather.

Every one of those look Good and usable Hirlau, Nice work.

Great effort for your 1st attempt.

Awesome job! Thank you for sharing with us!

Hirlau, we haven't spoken much, but I have great respect & appreciation for your posts.

My local leather shop (Portland Leather) scores an edge w/ a ballpoint along a metal straightedge before reaching for a blade. Next, takes a blade along the same straight edge & tries to keep it in the bottom of the trough created by the ballpoint. Next, uses a straight edge cutting tool (about $20) which is simply a blade w/ a width-limiting guide, cutting inside the slice left by the knife. I wasn't worth a dang at cutting straight either. If the variation in the cut is minimal, an edging tool will make it undetectable. For finish-burnishing the edge, the traditional method is literally to wipe spit on the raw edge, and burnish w/ a wooden handled tool - even a wooden kitchen spoon. (Thank You HidestoArt)

HidestoArt is probably the most experienced leather worker I'll ever have the pleasure to speak with. And, he's a wonderful guy. Connecting with him is sure to be informative, and a great pleasure.

All Best to you & yours, Hirlau

Originally Posted by pinklather

Hirlau, we haven't spoken much, but I have great respect & appreciation for your posts.

My local leather shop (Portland Leather) scores an edge w/ a ballpoint along a metal straightedge before reaching for a blade. Next, takes a blade along the same straight edge & tries to keep it in the bottom of the trough created by the ballpoint. Next, uses a straight edge cutting tool (about $20) which is simply a blade w/ a width-limiting guide, cutting inside the slice left by the knife. I wasn't worth a dang at cutting straight either. If the variation in the cut is minimal, an edging tool will make it undetectable. For finish-burnishing the edge, the traditional method is literally to wipe spit on the raw edge, and burnish w/ a wooden handled tool - even a wooden kitchen spoon. (Thank You HidestoArt)

HidestoArt is probably the most experienced leather worker I'll ever have the pleasure to speak with. And, he's a wonderful guy. Connecting with him is sure to be informative, and a great pleasure.

All Best to you & yours, Hirlau

Thank you for the kind words,,,,

I'm going to spend time tonight looking for the tools you mentioned & read up on the techniques,,, this helps me a lot,,, the cutting was the hardest part for me.