Thread: breaking in strop

Originally Posted by maniotas1

any reason why chrome tanned leather is no good for a strop?

It depends on the type of chrome tanning and subsequent finishing.

Chrome tanning is the most widely used tanning method in the world today. Chrome tanning can produce leather for garments and upholstery that is too thin and stretchy to be useful for stropping. Also a wide colour palette with often garish artificial colours is associated with chrome tanning.

Some chrome tanned leather has the outer surface removed by sanding and them is is finished with dyes and pigments and a plastic-like layer and has the grain pattern re-stamped into it to keep it nice and regular. The outer coating renders this type unsuitable for strops. It is usually termed "corrected grain" becuae of this process of sanding and re-graining, whereas leather with its original surface still intact is called full-grain.

Corrected grain leather is usually leather of an inferior quality, typically not good enough for vegetable tanning. The reason this type of leather is no good for stropping is because it has a thick pigmented artificial layer over it to hide the flaws. You are not stropping on leather with this type of stuff, but on the layer of pigment that they have coated the inferior leather with.

Vegetable tanned leather is generally used for strops because leather of a heavier weight are tanned that way.

However, if you have a full-grained, non pigmented leather of the right weight that has been chrome tanned or part chrome tanned (some latigos are part chrome tanned - involves both vegetable and chrome tanning) then I don't see why you couldn't make a decent strop out of it. I have never used it myself, so I am only guessing, though.

Regards,
Neil

good thread!
ex

Thank you Neil,

That explanation is exactly what I was after.
Thanks for taking the time to write it up

Looks like I need to find a veg tanned supplier