Paddle Strop or Cricket Bat?

I just thought i would share with you guys the strop ive been using since i started shaving. So after i destroyed my first strop i figure i needed to make one that i could easily replace the leather.
So to start this off i went in search of some good smooth heavy leather and in my search some very nice lady pointed me to the local shoe repair guy, who sold me a 6' X 3" X 1/8" mammoth strip of Leather for $50. Now having the leather i headed of to get some Wood and Fasteners. I used oak for the Paddle of the strop 3' X 3.5" X 3/4" and some nice brass finished fasteners to hold the leather down. I made 3 of these things for myself and family. The total cost was about $70 for 3 of them.
This worked out well for me and i was thinking of the new member who destroy new strops like i did, that this may be the way to go for them as well.

my goodness thats a big paddle strop. It looks good though. If you wanted to paste it you could do 2 different paste on one side as long as it is. I must say its a pretty cool idea.

oh and i found a awesome use for Zeepk razor i have. Cut leather really well.
I did condition the leather with the Dovo stuff, and i have another paddle strop with the Green paste

Last weekend I made a similar paddle strop.
I have glued the leather but like your idea better.
Thank you for sharing this.

What leather did you use?

To be honest I'm not sure the kind of leather. It's a cow hide of some sort. But really how good of leather does it have to be. As long as it is really smooth and it's pulled tight it will do the job.
So I would say it's the cheap kind:) sorry not much help.

When my 3" strop finally goes under, I am going to make one of these. Perhaps I can not wait that long!:idea:

Pabster

I fine the thing about a paddle strop is you never have to worry about keeping the tension on it. So i am able to concentrate on my stropping and not trying to do two things at once (keeping it tight and stropping)

That does look very cool. Wide enough for the whole blade in one pass, and very long. Great idea.

That looks like the first paddle I made. Subsequent ones have been a bit more... restrained.

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...u/P1050438.jpg

Leather was cheap, and bigger is better. Why show restrain.

How do you choose your leather for a DIY strop? What type of leather is best for making a paddle strop at home? Is there a certain animal it needs to be coming from? What are the do's and don'ts of strop leather selection?

I have made big paddle strops from raw cowhide and hard bridle leather. I greatly prefer the soft cowhide. The bridle leather is nice and smooth, but would make a better hanging strop. There's no give/spring to the bridle leather on a wood paddle, so it's more like a hone. It just isn't as nice to the edge as the cowhide. I think I could get better results from the bridle leather if it was a hanging strop. Maybe it just needs more time and conditioning. The hanging strop is harder to learn - I have others. I've put lots of strop conditioner on both types of leather, and the cowhide strop is nice and smooth, soft, and springy. It's better than what it was when I started using it. The paddles are maple and I used contact cement (rubbery) to glue the leather on both sides of the paddle.

I bought the cowhide from Tandy Leather - which is also available online. I used 2.5" wide leather straps (I think they're cinching straps) that were about 5' long. I like a 2.5" leather strop better than a 3". I like a 3" strop better for wool and linen (highly recommend a 3" linen strop).

I bought the bridle leather from a saddle shop in Connecticut, but any large user of leather will have leather available in the sizes you want.

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Originally Posted by StraightShavingAustin

How do you choose your leather for a DIY strop? What type of leather is best for making a paddle strop at home? Is there a certain animal it needs to be coming from? What are the do's and don'ts of strop leather selection?

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Personally I use Vegetable tanned kangaroo leather on my strops. It is my favourite.

As far as selection goes, use the highest grade you can get. You want the leather to be as free as possible of creases and scars. The type of tanning process also seems to effect the way the leather strops a great deal. For instance with kangaroo, the vegetable tanned seems to work a lot better than chrome tanned.

People use all sorts of skin. Cow, horse, roo, pig. They used to use dolphin in the old days. Experiment and see what you like.