Thread: Anyone ever heard of a Bench Strop?

Bench strops are cheap, easy to make, and effective. I make mine from 12 x 6 inch HandAmerica leather obtained from Woodcraft glued using 3M 77 spray adhesive to 3 x 24 x 1 hardwood finish planed boards from Woodcraft. I cut the wood into two 12 x 3 x 1 pieces, spray on the glue and lay the wood onto the 3 x 12 leather. Once the glue has set, I cut off the 3 x 12 inch leather overhanging piece on a cutting board using a sharp knife and glue that leather piece onto the second 3 x 12 x 1 board. I keep seperate strop sets for knives and razors, and have made pasted strops using a variety of pastes and diamond sprays. I use an unpasted TM latigo hanging strop for a razor daily strop, and pasted bench strops for knives. I also have and use a 4 sided TM paddle strop, leather, 5 um diamond paste, 1 um diamond paste, and 0.5 um diamond paste.

Knife strops build up a lot of swarf and should not be used with razors, in my opinion. It is very important to keep the strops clean and to prevent grit cross contamination between strops. Pastes should be thinly applied to a strop to prevent surface uneveness. I take great care to clean my blade and daily unpasted strop before each razor stropping session to prevent possible damage to razor edges by dirt particles.