Making a Strop

[dyimages]

First thank you to all those who posted suggestions on improvising a strop. The newspaper is turning into a valuable training tool and MAXI was a huge help on helping repair my poormans strop from whippedog.com

Today I finally made it to Tandy. I manage to pick up 3"x50" natural cow hide for a decent price. I also grabbed some 3" rings, Chicago screws, neats foot oil and a small thing of Leather dye. The dye was because the cow hide was natural in colour as per attached image.

I went for the cowhide only because the Red latigo I wanted only came in 2.5" and I really wanted a 3" strop.

So my question is am I okay to dye this stuff to use as a strop? Should I do any other prep to the leather prior to using it? It is pretty supple felling right now, similar to a decent mens belt