Thread: DIY strops material

Hello gents

As newbie I have many question that maybe already someone else asked but I did a little (not a profuse) search but did not find a response about using a automobile safe belt as a strop material instead of linen fire house.
I was guessing if a safe belt could replace the purpose of the fire hose or even maybe a piece of denim.
Thank you all in advance

You can see secthat kind of material if you like. It’s available new it many places including sewing shops. There are many kinds of webbing available. Jute, hemp, nylon, cotton and linen are the ones I have seen. They all work. The linen is hard to find, nylon and cotton are relatively common and hemp and jute are around but found more in furniture restoration places. Used webbing is hard to find in pristine condition.

Yes, seatbelt strapping will work, but not the same as flax. Flax is abrasive.

If you use seatbelt, it must be new. Used seatbelt is imbedded with dirt and grit that can scratch a bevel and cause more damage than polish. You would never be able to remove all the grit. Just one piece of grit can damage a bevel and edge.

You can buy nylon and poly strapping from most fabric stores inexpensively. Denim works well but frays easily and sewing makes a welt.

Canvas is a good substrate and will not fray if cut.

I was curious about it, yesterday after read some post of used linen fire hoses in strops making first thing I thought when I buckle up my seat belt was "...this could serve as strop...", apparently I can not take straight razors related stuff out of my mind lately
Good night

Even with firehose, the biggest issue is getting it clean. Vintage hose often sat in a cabinet for years, collecting fine dust deep in the weave.

It must be washed repeatedly to get the dirt out, that is the hardest part of making a linen firehose strop. Results will vary depending on how well the material was cleaned.

Nylon seatbelt does make a very good pasted strop substrate and is a great strop for new guys to learn on as they are very difficult to cut and produce a good finish.

I have used straps from lifts at work that are basically seat belts.



They work great for pastes.

I think SRD and others have used seat belt webbing as a second component and many have had good results with that. Some of that material is actually polyester, others are nylon. It may be interesting to see how one performs over the other.

There is a 3" cotton webbing on eBay I think used to restore tambor rolling doors (roll top desks). It is thin but has a nice herringbone weave similar to seatbelts.

Does any one have a line on shell leather and/or linen to make a strop from?

Shell can be bought from Horween but is very pricey, $300+ for a decent sized shell that "may" make a few strops. As much as I would like to use it I cannot justify the additional cost that would be passed on compared to the slight if any increase in performance.

Genuine Linen is in short supply here in the USA. My supplier is completely out and he and I are scrambling to obtain more from Europe.