Thread: Made a strop

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Neil had to start somewhere, Mark! We all benefit from his teachings still.
The guy never really advertised and told all he knew freely.

He personally traveled down to the hide-seller and nitpicked, bitched, and moaned until he got things such as he desired.

Cheers mate, that made me chuckle.

I miss Neil.

That's great Mark, very well done.

That's a hell of a lot better looking than my first Roo strop. Very tidy workmanship.
Hope you are able to find a good source of linen. Was a big industry here, and some of the best was made about 10 miles from where I live now. Petrochemical products put an end to it around '79.

Make sure your beveler is sharp, you can polish it by loading a nylon shoe lace or piece of paracord with Chrome Oxide or metal polish, clamping one end and running the beveler on it backwards,

Then take lite cuts, practice on some scrap.

For burnishing you can also buy a plastic/nylon wheel from a hardware store used for sliding screen door that ride on a track, the edge is concave.

Run a bolt though it and chuck it in a drill. Almost any liquid even plain water will soften the edge so it can be shaped, but wax works very well to “glue” the fibers together to make a smooth edge. It is mostly for esthetics.

Sanding the edge also helps.

I too have cut a small bead at the edge for looks, it does not affect the finish of the edge and I think, looks more finished.

I recently bought a vintage Kanayama strop with a washed and broken in Flax linen, soft as an old sock. It is very nice to use. I have also made some Flax firehose strops and once washed and stretched are very soft and aggressive and might make a nice Linen for you.

Here is a pic of a Latigo strop I made years ago, and one of the firehose strops.

Congratulations on a job well done Mark!

Nice job Mark.
I have a strip of that Horween and have been saving it for a strop project for some time.
Always on my to do, maybe one day to be on my ta done. Hope it looks half as nice as that one sir.

Thanks for all your kind comments. This definitely wont be my first and only. Id love to make one from Shinki Hikaku shell one day.