Thread: Balsa wood strop

Hello,
I going to buy a piece of balsawood for stopping. My only questions are which grade A,B or C grade? Which density soft medium or hard? Or does it even matter about the grade or density? I didnt even know there were different densities.

Doesn’t matter, if you are pasting wood, almost any wood works, even MDF.

There are other, better alternatives depending on the paste and what you are stropping. I like MDF for tools and knives.

My first pasted strops were balsa, but I found it to be too soft. Even your fingernail can dent it. If you try the pencil test to lap the balsa as we do with stones, you find that the pencil point causes grooves in the balsa. I end up getting dents or nicks in the surface of the balsa and have to either lap it or replace it periodically. Perhaps, there are different grades of balsa that are more dense and would work better.

I now use basswood for my strops as I find it to be more user friendly. It is a more dense than balsa and it is less subject to damage. You can usually find basswood alongside balsa at most hobby stores.

There is a YouTube video comparing balsa to basswood for pasted strops. According to the video, there is no appreciable difference in the effect on the razor edge between the two substrates. I concur with that position.

Essentially any fine grained wood can be used for a strop. Just avoid woods with heavy grain patterns. Balsa and basswood are inexpensive and readily available in suitable widths and thicknesses, so they are the two substrates most frequently used.

The previous post recommends MDF as a substrate for tools and knives. While it is suitable for those types of edges, I would not want to use it for razors. I have toured a plant that made MDF used in furniture. MDF is manufactured from waste products (wood shavings, sawdust, etc.) from the lumber and paper industries; it can have contaminants that would not be kind to your delicate razor edge.

It seems to be a very good idea to use MDF. A piece of balsa does warp depending on atmospheric humidity so I had to glue it upon more stable surface.