Thread: First attempt at strop making - some advice needed please

In need of a strop, I was inspired by other's strop-making efforts and decided that was the approach for me - I enjoy a bit of DIY and the cost of getting one from overseas was also a factor.

I did a bit of searching on the internet and came across a local leather supplier who seems to have anything and everything I could ever need in their warehouse - Bunnings guy-heaven but with they bonus of the aroma of leather! http://www.lefflerleather.com.au/

My initial plans were to use 2" belt blank leather, but on advice from the guy who would have to cut it he pointed me towards a box of leather scraps. I found a few pieces that were big and wide enough, but 2 were a very waxy type of leather (black and brown) that seemed rather stiff - and I wasn't sure if the oily/waxy surface was a good thing for my razor. The third I bought as it had a bit more suppleness and the surface was very smooth and slick - it felt good to me - natural coloured about 4mm thick, cost less than $2 I hope it will do the trick, but if not I can scrounge for another scrap and replace it down the track.

For a cotton/linen strop (well I might as well make a double strop) they had some 50mm "flax cotton tube webbing". Compared to other webbing they had (thin herring-bone, and with many grass seeds in one case!) I preferred the smooth weave and thickness - plus being tube woven it has no seam and two usable sides - maybe handy for pasting who knows? Ooph! its not the cheapest material out there - cost me $7 for 80cm (a scrap length - no discount unfortunately!).

Hardware - well they had loads of options, I ended up getting a 2" snap swivel, two 2" nickel-plated Tawianese Dees for handles (I was initially thinking brass), and 6mm Chicago screw-rivots. The same basic hardware used by Star Shaving Supplies in their Big Daddy/Mama (I was just going to use all Dees until I saw their strops). I made a boo-boo with the rivots though, they're fine for a folded-over double-thickness join, but I forgot that there'll be more like double this thickness at the top where all the materials join together... Doh! So I'll have to source some longer ones now... I spent about $7 on the metal hardware (plus some more for the forgotten long rivots) so total cost well under $20


Now some advice please?!

1) The leather I have has a raw length of about 35" if cut to 2" wide (plus some 2" squares from the wide end of the scrap). Should I use this to make one long strop (I'm guessing it would be around 30"? working length), or two short ones? Can a strop be too long? Is there are rule of thumb for how much working length a strop should have?
I could sacrifice a a few inches of raw length and get a 2.5" strop out of the leather too. Is wider better or would you recommend sticking with the narrow 2"?

2) The webbing tube has a fraying edge, and it seems rather too easy to unweave the spiral core from it at the moment. I guess will have to stitch and/or glue it to stop this? What do you do to stop this?



Cheers,
quiet1