Thread: Material for strop

I found some at Hobby Lobby. Don't have to buy half a hide but the piece I found is enough for several strops.

I agree with Rick, if you can go to Tandy leather and fins a scrap piece of 3" x 24" you are just in luck!. some of those stores have atually a way to cut it .. if so ask them if the can bevel the edge for you, otherwise i would recommend to buy an edge beveler, it can be a Chinese one, which are really cheap. no need to buy anything fancy as you wont use it hundreds of times, and to be honest.. chinese edge bevelers hold a good edge for a very long time.. not as great as japanese ones, but good enough and 5 times cheaper.

Now, the leather, you want it to be thick enough to avoid having to make any handles and such, that will complicate your task (3-4mm thick). this way you can make a good barber strop.

if you get just regular vegetable tan leather for tooling (good option) you will need to get some neatsfoot oil.. really no need to use more than a few drops.. so the lowes qty you get, the better... apply warm water with a damp cloth, wait for 10 min, do it again, wait 2-3 min.. put a few drops oil on another cloth and distribte thru the strop..
then work rus a bit more with the wather damp cloth.. your goal is to use very very little oil... and distribute as well as possible..

if you use latigo leather you wont need to do the oiling or conditioning... just the good old rubbing hands works ..

Here are some good videos for leather working; this one is about edge finishing.
finishing-edges-leather-craft-video
JMO
That is basically what I used a few years back to finish one of my home made strops.
Hides to Art also told me about the idea of carefully finishing a strop by "Spit Shining" it
A cloth wrapped tightly around an index finger and carefully touching the real neetsfoot oil; then polishing a couple square inches of the strop per application and letting the strop set for a while before another application.
That has worked well for me in the past. No water involved but time taking, a bunch.

YMMV
~Richard

You can buy handles, rings, clips, screws, from Razor Emporium

Everything you need Razor Emporium Strops

Straight Razor Strop | Replacement Heirloom Parts | Razor Emporium

My cobbler got me a 3x80 inch piece of latigo. It was $50 but that was several years ago

What about the linen - whats best?

Originally Posted by Vlasta

What about the linen - whats best?

I'd like to know as well, if I swing by the fabric store is there a special kind of linen I should ask for?

2b

Originally Posted by TwoBirds

I'd like to know as well, if I swing by the fabric store is there a special kind of linen I should ask for?

2b

I think just linen. Thinking about it I even stropped my razor on my jeans trouser leg when I forgot my strop when traveling. Any smooth linen - not one with the bobbles on it.