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Making your own strop
I am new to straight razor shaving. Actually, I am waiting for my first straight razor to be delivered. I have already recieved shaving cream, allum block, strop dressing and Dovo premium strop.
When I introduced myself to the forum, one of the pieces of advice was to practice on a cheap strop and perfect my stropping technique. I have been doing leather work for quite some time now. I believe I can make my own strop, but I am not sure of what kind of leather to use. My first inclination is to use premium saddle leather. Does anyone have any advice?
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Welcome to SRP. I don't know what to tell you on the leather but I would take a look at the 1961 barber manual excerpt here in the SRP Wiki help files. The last couple of pages are on correct stropping. If you apply what they suggest chances are you won't nick your strop.
The old barber strops were as a rule 2 1/2 wide by 24" long. I've seen them 1/8 thick and some 3/16". Current strops are anywhere from 2" to 3" in width. Horsehide is common and some are bovine. A matter of preference that can only be gained with experience.
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I made my own strop a couple of years ago and am still using it. I used nubuck, 2 1/2 - 3 in. wide, and flattened the nap on the finished side with a cork. I put a loop for hanging at one end , and narrowed the other to make it easier to hold. I've made a couple since, but neither is as good as the nubuck one.
goshawk
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Making a strop
I made a very nice one out of top grain cowhide from TANDY LEATHER CO. It comes in 3 inch strips about 50 to 60 inches long. Don't mailorder them. You need to hand select the leather because some strips have blemishes.
I also made a few flatbed strops glued to floor tile or balsawood. Have fun......
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I found some great latigo on EBAY and it worked great.
Mike
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I've made three so far, not counting a paddle strop, and they're all as good of quality as I can imagine. Just make sure that your piece of leather is smooth, flat and free of abrasions; by far the most important part. You can use virtually any leather that fits those criterion. The rest of the strop making process is a breeze if you have any dexterity whatsoever.
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I have used a commercial one (Illinois Strop Co) and made several from 2 inch cheap cowhide (Tandy) and 2 inch Latigo cowhide (Tandy). All work. My fav is the Latigo.
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I'm currently using a 2" strop I cut out of extra heavy latigo ( 10+ oz) and it seems to be working fine.
I want one to use for pastes instead of plain, so I'm making one out of heavy saddle leather. It's considerably thicker and heavier than the latigo, even before treating with oil and sealant.
I've got a piece of even heavier harness leather, treated with waxes to prevent it from absorbing water, and the wax interferes with sharpening. It could possibly be cleaned up but as sold harness leather is unsuitable.
Every piece of leather is different, but premium latigo is *probably* the best piece of cowhide LIKELY to be suitable. The 'best' is without much question horsehide, which is a finer grained and more supple leather.. but it's approached most closely in cowhide by latigo. I'd expect stiff planed hard cowhide to be getting broken in about the time the latigo was beginning to wear out.
