custom strop

I have come up with another question for you guys lol... There is a custom leather and nylon shop in my area and he mainly does work like bridles and such for horses ,he also makes holsters and the like. I called him today and asked him if he had ever made a strop for a straight razor he replied he had not and told me if I got him info on how and what materials would be ideal he could make it for me probably cheaper than buying it elsewhere and I like supporting local business anyway. So my question is, What kind of leather is Ideal for stropping a straight razor and whats the preferred length and width that most of you prefer? any help would be appreciated thanks.

What you are asking for is mostly preference. Many (not all) leathers offer themselves to strop making, creating a variety of feel (draw). The width/length again depend entirely on a person's preference.

If you were to ask my preference on a strop I would say: 2 1/2" x 20" shell stropping surface with little to no draw and real linen, separate at the padded leather handles, swivel clip at the top.

I would suggest showing him a few pictures of strops so he can see the hardware involved. As for leather, I don't think it really makes a difference. I have strops made from cow and horse leather. Member MickR was making kangaroo strops for awhile so there is a variety of leather to choose from. It now seems the most common width for the strop is 3 inches, but 2 to 2 &1/2 inches is common, so I guess it would be personal preference. The same can be said regarding length. My shortest strop has a stropping surface length of 17 inches. I hope this helps and do post pictures of the finished strop if you decide to have one custom made.

A good strop leather is also cut along the spine of the animal or close to it. When assembled the grain lies away from you, or is it towards you ? I can never remember. In any case do lots of research first. It can be done . Lots of guys make their own but your first may not be as good as a bought one.

I am in no way a leather expert. I make strops from English Bridle leather cowhides, which I suspect he will have on hand. I think it is a common type leather. English Bridle leather makes very nice strops in my opinion.

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Originally Posted by LarryAndro

I am in no way a leather expert. I make strops from English Bridle leather cowhides, which I suspect he will have on hand. I think it is a common type leather. English Bridle leather makes very nice strops in my opinion.

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I'd agree with that. I have an English Bridle, and it's one of my favorites. You can acutally make the strop yourself, and maybe save some money in the process. It's really quite easy, and you don't have to make a handle. The large D rings work well too, so it'd be a matter of punching some holes the leather, and visiting Home Depot. (I bet the Leather smith would do it for free, punch holes in the leather that is), so all you have to do is put it together. I have a Tandy leather by me, (smells wonderful) and they have many, many different types of leather to choose from. Of course, I stuck with cowhide, I was making paddles, and it seemed the logical choice for future pasting. Anyway, they have "belt lether" pre cut pieces in various widths up to 3" and up to 50' ft lengths.

Here's a pic of the paddles, the one on the far right was made by nun2sharp completely, and it's English Bridle. The paddles with cowhide leather on them were made by Gerrit, or Deighaingeal. I simply added the leather, the bare one is my attempt at woodworking. I found the guys at Tandy Leather extremely helpful, and gave me lot's of free advice, little tips that really helped when I worked with the leather...Ask your Leather guy if he has a scrap bin you can look through.

Sizes, Widths go anwhere from 2 - 3 inches, and lenghts go 18-24. Another choice for leather is Cordovan. Nice stuff...2 1/2 w x 20 seems about right...

I'm leaving for a week long training trip tomorrow and went to the leather shop today and we kinda threw this one together but before I walked out the door we were already making plans on how to make it better lol.
It is made out of what he called double bend bridle leather which felt kind of soft to the touch and wasn't real stiff.

It has a 17in long and 3in wide stropping surface so its small and able to fit in my shave kit for the trip.

The ends are tapered to two inches to accommodate the two inch d-loops he fastened to the ends so one acts as a handle and I can hang the other on something sturdy.

He used rivets to fasten the d-loops I think next time I'm going to ask for white stitching because the black leather and white stitch looks really good and If I go a little bit to far up or down with a razor I don't have to worry about blade damage to much.

The whole thing only cost me ten dollars and he made it in about 15min or so.

Attachment 73180Attachment 73181Attachment 73182

sorry I didn't get better pics but I just took them on my truck seat while getting out to go to work.

I'm not crazy about the waves in it. Can those be removed? Also those rivets can be menacing if your razor accidentally hits one while stropping. But for a first try it's not bad at all. The main thing with a strop is smooth, quality uniform leather without marks or fat wrinkles in it.

The rivets was one of the things we thought about and the next one he makes hes going to use rawhide or stitching, and the waves are gone when the strops pulled tight I used it last night and im pleased with it

A lot of people use Chicago screw to fasten the D-rings and/or handles.