Tony Miller, Whipped Dog, and boredom...

First off, this past Thursday I had the distinct pleasure of not only getting a Tony Miller Strop, but also of meeting the man himself. He answered all my questions and gave me a great breakdown of everything that goes into his strops. It really is inspiring to talk to someone that has passion for what they do and it truly comes through in his products. The strop is absolutely beautiful and the steer hide is as smooth as..well I don't know, but it's darn smooth! I took a pic to post but my cell camera is awful and wouldn't do it justice. If you are in the market for a new strop I highly reccomend you check out his work.

Second, my first strop was the poor mans strop from Whipped Dog. I am glad I went that route as it took some punishment as I learned to strop. If I ever hack up one of my more expensive strops the way I did that one I am liable to turn the razor on myself! The strop has gone through many repairs since I bought it but has just been hanging from my wall pretty much untouched since I picked up a SRD strop about six months ago. I felt bad about neglecting it, but what to do, use it from time to time just to make sure it still felt loved? Inspiration struck as I aimlessly wandered the never ending aisles of Wal Mart. There in the craft section was green felt, two yards for two dollars. I remembered the DIY denim strop in the wiki and thought I might be able to do something similar with the felt. So home I went with my felt and this is what I did:
http://i916.photobucket.com/albums/a...WhippedDog.jpg
Aside from the fact that I can't cut a straight line to save my life, I am happy with it. I am thinking of putting Iron Oxide on the felt and Cro-Ox on the leather. By the way it is hanging from my overhead light because that is the only way I could get my crappy cell cam to pick up the color of the felt.

sclik, nice use of the gear. On the felt, is that craft shop (thin) felt? or did you find some thick, hard stuff? If you found thick/hard - where did you find it?

I used one of my early strops to try pasting the linen side w/ finishing stone slurry. It did a respectable job. Another leather strop got glued to a pc of oak and pasted w/ crox.

The felt is a little thicker than your average craft pieces, it was actually on a fabric bolt, but it is still to thin and light to use on its own. Being that it is attached to the leather with contact cement I wasn't really worried about it being thin and stretching.

Tony is such a great guy and exceptional to deal with.
I have always said that on one of our yearly trips to Pa. I was going to look him up and stop by to meet him.
The love and dedication he has to his craft shows in his workmanship.

I picked up some industrial felt here: http://www.cleverbrand.com/Portal.as...N=B682F1801120

I got 12x12 inch squares. 1/4" thick. I used it to make drawer liners for a 3-drawer cabinet to store some of my razors.

(No, it's not on wheels! That's my cowboy action gun cart in the corner.)