Thread: Made a strop

Great job on the strop! That's a handsome looking piece and is bound to serve you well. A lot of satisfaction in making and using your own strop.

what's the thickness of your leather ?

Looks like nice 9 ounce, 3.5mm piece. Maybe a little smaller..

Nice work, an edge beveler, to round the corners and a hand held sick type or plastic, or wood wheel can be hand held or mounted to a drill and some bees wax, hideglue or even white craft glue will give you a smooth finished edge by burnishing. Just a few dollars from Tandy, they will also carry all the hardware. Ebay also sell tools inexpensively that will work well.

Strop making can be addictive, Cotton Canvas or Polyester Sail cloth works very well, in place of linen and can be cut to size from a yard, about $5 at any craft store. There are posts on making them.

I too have been looking for good, 3 in flax, but have not found any. There are some selling Hemp, that I have heard good results from but have not tried the hemp.

Vintage linen, is also an option, often you can buy a strop, very inexpensively, with the leather trashed, but the linen can be cleaned and restored, and you get the hardware. It is a bit of work, but worth the effort.

Nice job, bet it works great!

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Nice work, an edge beveler, to round the corners and a hand held sick type or plastic, or wood wheel can be hand held or mounted to a drill and some bees wax, hideglue or even white craft glue will give you a smooth finished edge by burnishing.

Interesting thing about the 'pinstripe' is that it doubly-establishes the edge of the strop.
If done properly, What is at the edge of the strop does not matter so much?

Originally Posted by outback

Very nice and simple.
Looks similar to bridle, so what is the draw similar to, in your opinion

The draw feels to me like bridal but it is much more pliable and supple. Ive read that the draw with cxl is heavy but it just didnt feel heavy to me. When you rub your hand over it you can see how oily it is but the draw is dry. Strange.

Originally Posted by Oustoura

what's the thickness of your leather ?

Its about 2.2mm and very lightweight.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

Nice work, an edge beveler, to round the corners and a hand held sick type or plastic, or wood wheel can be hand held or mounted to a drill and some bees wax, hideglue or even white craft glue will give you a smooth finished edge by burnishing. Just a few dollars from Tandy, they will also carry all the hardware. Ebay also sell tools inexpensively that will work well

Cheers, the multi tool ive got comes with an edge beveler. I practiced with a bit of scrap leather but need a bit more practice before Im let loose with a strop.
Ive read you can use spit to burnish the edge too!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Interesting thing about the 'pinstripe' is that it doubly-establishes the edge of the strop.
If done properly, What is at the edge of the strop does not matter so much?

I think the pinstripe gives it a finished look. On my Neil Miller strop he put a pinstripe and beveled the edge. Personally I think it is just for aesthetics as vintage Shell and Kanayamas are not beveled.