Thread: Shark skin strop ?...

I like this !!....

That would be prettY cool indeed

Saves three to fives times the ordinary honing?! I'll take one!

I've been looking into making some - ordered the hides and everything, but the vendor didn't come through for me. If I can find someone reliable to get me the shark skin (or stingray) I'd do one in a flash.

One of the issues with shark skin as a strop is the directional nature of the placoid scales - rough one way but smooth the other. Sellers of shark or ray hides (at least the ones I have contacted) treat the hide in various ways first depending on what kind of texture you require.

James.

Keep it away from my porpoise hide strop!

To help with the directional nature of the scales, could you do two stops? One facing each way and spend some time on both?

Also, stingray isn't directional, but I have my own worries with it. Its nowhere near a flat surface. It would be like stripping with a piece of sandpaper (they used to use ray skin as sandpaper) but instead of bits of sand you have about 2mm tall bumps.

I'd be concerned putting my razors to kama

I don't think stropping on either sharkskin or stingray is a good idea. As said above, the denticles (small tooth-like scales) are both directional and hard, and stingray denticles are bony and uneven. True, you can buy stingray that has had the surface polished flat, but it still isn't like smooth leather and the sanded-down plates are still hard and bony.

You would have to avoid the central part of the stingray skin, too - the bony plates are larger there, and often penetrate the whole thickness of the skin. Either side of this are rather large oval holes, so if you take a piece of finer leather from the side it is a shorter length. Buying a skin large enough to make a strop from would be very expensive - getting on for $200 USD I would have thought. The belly appears not to have the denticles on it - at least the skins I have bought have the denticles getting finer and smaller as they approach the sides before stopping in quite a defined line. The skin is apt to be very thin here though - around 1/16th of an inch.

In the old days shark skin was 'split' - sliced into thinner layers of around 1/8th of an inch thick, and the top layer with the scales was not used for strops (it enjoyed a vogue period of being made into handbags, etc) but the underlying split was used instead. Cow hide is split to - the Dovo strops are splits, thats why the surface is so even, and it has a realistic pattern rolled into it under pressure to simulate the grain. A shark skin split is different - it is a tougher layer, and needs less processing than cowhide in order to use it.

I don't know if splits are available these days - where I have seen it stocked, it is the full-grain type. Very expensive, too.

It is also much tougher than cowhide. The skin is flexible and can be folded and bent over without creasing, for instance. However, these days it is pretty thin - around 1/8th inch, so it is often bonded to a stouter piece of cowhide. That thickness would be OK for a strop - shell cordovan and kangaroo are about that thickness.

I don't know if Maddafinga was joking, but I really do have a porpoise hide strop, and it is a superb leather. It must have some characteristics in common with shark skin as it is very flexible and very tough - its old, and I pulled it too taut and the leather handle just tore off - the cowhide hadn't lasted like the porpoise had!

Regards,
Neil

I do have a porpoise hide strop. But I was joking.

I love the extent of research that Neil and others have apparently done on this and other issues. From Pixelfixed Works of Art Strops to Jimbo’s Roo Strop making Tutorial.

It never ceases to amaze me the depth of knowledge and experimentation the members here have… and are willing to share that information.

Recently I had a conversation with Ken Schwartz, researcher, manufacturer, distributor of some of the finest Nano Grit Stropping sprays. Ken says his testing revealed, Kangaroo has produced the finest stropping results of all leathers he has tested.

He does qualify that, Kangaroo leather does have varying levels of quality and results. Like so many other things.

Thanks.

Well that has been the most disappointing thing for me with the shark skin strop saga - I contacted a vendor must be 18 months ago about it and ordered three hides corresponding to the three separate ways of treating their surface so I could experiment a bit, but unfortunately nothing ever came of it.

Based on their description I was interested in it as perhaps a "linen" substitute thus creating an "Australiana" strop - shark one side, kangaroo the other! Perhaps one day.

Next on my list is goanna hide. It's going to be tricky, especially since my koala skin stropping gloves are still a bit squidgey.

James.