Thread: What are you working on?

I made a hemp strop once. The webbing I bought was tight and felt very coarse. I put it through a gentle wash cycle, hung it to dry, and then cleaned up a piece of steel pipe, buffed the heck out of the pipe with the hemp, hand washed it and hung it to dry again. It is an awesome strop now. You could do something similar.

Originally Posted by Gasman

Tom, the fabric is so stiff Im a little afraid of it. Ive been cutting back on the amount of laps i do on it. Stiff and course. The leather on the 827 is more like the soft side. A little fury. Just a bit different than what Im used too.

My plan is to use it for right after the honing to help clean up the edge before going to a nice strop. Any comments?

I replaced the stiff stuff on mine. I use it for a 'workshop' strop. Super-hard. Like stropping on a cheese-grater, IMO.
It will get a burr off the edge pretty quick!

I did scrub it Shaun with a brush being the handle is leather and sewn on. I thought about some fabric sofener too. But Im afraid its not made of a material that would suck up anything. Almost like plastic.

Tom, i bet it would take a bur off in one stroke. Damn thing is harsh. Id hate to spend all the time honing then mess up an edge by stropping on that material. Guess I need to play with it more and see what happens.

Clean up a bar clamp, clamp it to the bench and use it to break in your strop, then wash it a little and try it again.
I try not to developer a burr while honing. The classics but is often developed when removing a lot of material in an attempted to create a bevel where one had not been. Like in restoration honing. They are sometimes unavoidable.

For some of you at Charlie's, you may have bought some fine green linen hose of the correct width. That material is the base of the 'hard' strops which you can see when an Illinois and some others of the time are worn down.
I had purchased it from Randy and made a couple strops from it. It took my home made strop dressing and I used one for year's that and one other lasted until I could no longer use a straight.
There were other articles but time has lost them...

does-anyone-make-their-own-stropping-paste

I bet it would be good for paste. It sure would hold whatever you put on it. Shaun, Im going to work the hell out of it when I get a chance and see if I can get it to limber up some. Maybe scrape a piece of metal across it if that dont work, to take the harshness out some.

Tom that's a great idea about 3D printing scales. I may have a line on 3D printing if I can pull the right strings. I don't know why it never occurred to me. See this is why they pay you the big money right?
Shaun, if that hemp stroke doesn't work out for you you can always make like the old sailors and smoke it. They don't call it smoking rope for nothing

Yuck, the old hemp rope was treated with preservatives like copper, chloripentsthenal, and creosote.

Many people have already had the idea of printed 3D scales.

I have held a few examples and although they looked alright they reminded me of something to use for a Gold Dollar. Cheap and light.

Originally Posted by 32t

Many people have already had the idea of printed 3D scales.

I have held a few examples and although they looked alright they reminded me of something to use for a Gold Dollar. Cheap and light.

Bummer dude