Thread: Alternate cheaper strop

I make all my own strops because it allows me to experiment with different leathers, finishes, surface treatments, etc. for relatively little money. The two sources I use for most of my leather and hardware are eleather.com and zackwhite.com. Both offer all you need to make terrific strops.

There's no reason why newbies couldn't make their own strops, hone and forge their own razors, apart from knowledge. They just need to choose a leather that works well enough and hone their razor sharp enough =). Defining the amount of "enough" is where the guesswork gets nasty.

If you have your heart set to it, go ahead and give it a try. There's instructions at Categoryo It Yourself - Straight Razor Place Wiki. Also search might reveal some member projects.

However, as Jimmy hinted, you might not save that much when you factor the hardware and labour.

My suggestion is that newbies should start with known good gear and make their own gear when they know what to aim at. Do note that newbies are usually warned against buying off ebay until they know what they're buying.

Good luck

I made a strop out of a $5 piece of scrap Latigo & it works very nicely. I bent up some D-rings out of scrap stainless steel rod in the machine shop at the company I was working for at the time, but you could just as easily use wooden dowels and paracord to keep the cost down.

I just finished making one this weekend. I figure to get three or four out of the twenty dollar piece of leather i bought. I would be in trouble if I didnt have my Illinois for comparison though. Turned out well and it was nice to prove to myself I could do it.

I bought a piece of leather 1.4mm thick and about 8sq ft so i was able to make a few strops, after finding a nice treatment for the leather to make it work well, so far so good and very cheep !
When i can afford it and if i really want one i'll probably buy one from Mr Miller here in the UK

ian

The strop doesn't have to hang. A piece of leather laid on the edge of a table will work. Not much different than a paddle strop.