Thread: Subsitute for balsa pasted strop?

Resurface with a sharp hand plane or jointer. Sandpaper will leave inbeded sandpaper grit in the balsa. Balsa already has grit in it to begin with.

A better cheap alternative is 2mm craft foam glued to MDF or any flat wood or surface. And it can be wet for use with CBN.

Balsa is cheap and a ¼ board can be used by itself, used it early on but not anymore more trouble that it is worth.

2mm Craft Foam a buck, a 12X9 in sheet will get you 3 strops, at Wally Mart or any craft store even comes with peel of glued backing.

Any glue will do I use either sicky back or thinned wood glue painted on with a inexpensive boar brush, they can be washed and re used. Penneys by the box from HF.

Yes, always best not to use cheap sandpaper on anything upon which no grit is desirable. I use the 3M microfinishing in 100 to sand mine. I like the surface flat, but not too smooth. A little fluff on the surface is desirable to retain paste. As to sanding, I would think good wet or dry would be fine as well.

Well the thing is, it's one of the cheap poor mans strop balsa strops. I'm not sure of the thickness but given the current warping I figure it's probably just beat to get something new.

I like the ideas of wooden paddle strops with some sort of material surface to paste. I've stropped on cardboard before, not a razor though, and had ok results I would just feel more comfortable with some sort of fabric instead of wood or something. The reason I had asked about denim is because I have several pairs of my sons old jeans that don't fit him anymore and they seem fairly comparable to things like canvas.

I would have to buy a board or something that could be cut down to glue the denim onto but I'm sure I could find something at the local craft store that would work.

It might be that the base is warped? You can go to the Hobby Lobby and get a piece of Balsa and get a piece of basswood right next to it the same size to glue it to for less than the poor man strop cost or... hey! Just glue it to a 2x4!! Either way, you should block -sand it with the grain before pasting. Buy a nice piece, uniform, no Knots!
If your gonna talk about pasted denim paddle strops, may as well start a new thread, Tex! That way, EVERYONE can get in on it! Except me........no experience there!
They say you can strop on water. Hone on it too!!

You can use denim, the edges will fray but other than looking funky, it will work. Sewing edges makes a welt and negates flatness. Make a hanging strop instead of a paddle. A couple of D Rings from a hardware store and some iron on fabric tape will make a nice hanger.

Better yet, a piece of polyester SailCloth will make an excellent strop and 1 yard, about ten dollars will make a bunch of strops. The edges will fray but only a little, due to the tight interlocking weave. Any fabric store will have all that you need.

Sail cloth strop 20X3 inches, Chrome Ox on one side, Cerium Oxide on the other. Iron on Fabric tape attaching D rings.