Thread: How long does it really need to be

I have wood, I have some leather, I want to upgrade from pasted balsa strop to a pasted leather bench strop. Problem is my leather isn't very long between 12 and 18 inchs. I woul like 2 sides to it so I can use my Chromium Oxide and M Iron Oxide on one block to save space. Is 12 inches doable or should I wait for a bigger piece?

Most bench strops are pretty short. I think mine is about 12 inches. it's certainly no longer and it's leather on wood and it works fine. Most travel paddle strops are far shorter.

Personally I'd say you've got more then enough material. How long is your stropping stroke? It can always be shortened. I use only 6" or so of my strop.

Nope the fiance is more then happy with that part of me. I got the advice from Glen (@gssixgun) to wait for a longer piece over on another forum. Now you guys are saying that shorter is ok. I have some thinking to do.

Now that I've looked around some I see that most travel strops are between 12 and 16 inches total length. Maybe I can creatively cut to get 2 3in wide pieces out of my scraps so I can have both sides. As long as its longer then a hone it should be alright, right?

Your strop could be 4 inches long and still be effective you would just have to do more laps. It doesn't have a length requirement..

With the leather I have I could make both sides just narrower then a King hone at about 2.25inch and also just longer maybe 8 or 9 inches. Or I could have one side be 2.25 wide and a full 12 inches long. Or have a 3x10 piece on one side I might try out having it duel sided and about the size of the King hone. It'll be just longer and just narrower.

The balsa strop I use pasted now is 11 inches long and 3 inches wide but the ends aren't really pasted well. I use maybe the center 7 inches or so.

My bench strops are 12 inches long and my stroke on a bench strop is about 10 inches. So you've got the material for it.

You can get 3 inch strips thru Tandy Leather.

Originally Posted by bouschie

You can get 3 inch strips thru Tandy Leather.

I was wanting to make it from what I already had. If I ordered I would make it 18 inches long and 3 inches wide with leather on all 4 sides of a block so I could have 2 pasted sides a rough leather and a smooth leather all on the same block.

Length really doesn't matter and width really doesn't matter once you get use to using it. I have gone to using paddles pretty much for all stropping. I have ones that are 2x12, 2.5x14, 1x16, 1x12, and 2.5x6. They all are effective.