Thread: Yet another homemade paddle strop

I made this with the thought of being able to change leather or fabric and keep the paddle as razor inflicted damage occurs.

3" Latigo leather with a poor dye job (came in 72" strap!). #4 Cotton Duck Canvas (huge sheet enough for a dozen strops). Oak paddle with 4 coats of Formby's tung oil.
Measurements of overall length and usable stropping length in the pics.

The tools


size comparison (hanging dovo cowhide, my paddle, old beat up russian hanger)


Fabric



Leather


From tip of handle to far edge


From washer to washer


Thoughts? ideas for improvement?

Nice thought, but I don't like the exposed metal on the stropping surface. (Probably a foundless thought, as when one strops, one leads with the spine...) For my paddle strop, I just hit a piece of maple with 3m spray adheasive, stuck it to some leather, then trimmed it to fit. Its not much to look at, but gets the job done.

yeah the only reason I didn't want to paste it is for the modularity.

Originally Posted by Cevulirn

Nice thought, but I don't like the exposed metal on the stropping surface.

I'll have to agree here, those large exposed metal parts makes me cringe
It looks plenty long for it not to be a problem, so perhaps it is just me. How does the duck canvas hold up? Did you do anything to prevent fraying or is that not a problem?

I like it!
It's a quick cheap easy changeover and if you are worried about the exposed metal parts, don't hit them. After all, you drive a car with exposed metal parts coming at you with a relative speed of at least 120 mph with just a few feet of clearance and many do survive day to day. Surely you can handle stropping within a safe zone.

Oh, I do have one criticism/suggestion: Narrow the wood base to match the width of the leather and liner. It will make the stropping easier.

Originally Posted by Utopian

Oh, I do have one criticism/suggestion: Narrow the wood base to match the width of the leather and liner. It will make the stropping easier.

You know, I did think of doing that. But I figured I could use that small edge of wood as a guide for my knuckles to slide on so that I don't use too much pressure and roll an edge. We'll see if it is more of a nuisance than I think it will be though.

Originally Posted by str8fencer

I'll have to agree here, those large exposed metal parts makes me cringe
It looks plenty long for it not to be a problem, so perhaps it is just me. How does the duck canvas hold up? Did you do anything to prevent fraying or is that not a problem?

I haven't done anything to prevent fraying because I have so much of this stuff. If it falls appart like wet tissue paper then I might try running a very light bead of glue along the underside so that it doesn't effect the stropping surface.

It looks great to me other than the huge chunks of screw end cap hanging out. Have you thought about either counter sinking the end caps so they rest closer to flush or about using some chicago screws? I think I'd have enough control to not hit the razor against the screw caps but they look like they hang way out there.

Here's a couple I made, and had help making. I used the 3m spray adhesive. I like the idea of modularity, but don't like the idea of exposed metal. Did you consider magnetic tape, or even Velcro. If you have a Harbor Freight by you, I'm sure they have it, if not, there's always the internet....Velcro.....

Velcro sounds like a better idea. haha