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strop leather

4K views 64 replies 20 participants last post by  Karda 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
ineed a newe strop, I am using ans old belt and it getting cut and falling apart. i want to get some leather, but all that i am looking at is graded by ounces. i want a thick firm leather not soft what do i want thanks mike
 
#2 ·
Can use most any leather for strop? Thicker heavier leather lasts longer. Plain vegetable tanned leather is cheaper, and doesn't have any dies in it. Dyed leathers can stain your hands, surfaces when it gets wet, so I avoid it.

I prefer 'sole' or 'sole bend' cuts on hide, that are 10+oz weights, or ~8+mm thick. Challenge with thick sole leather is cost? Hide can be split into several thinner layers, so thickest hides tend to be most expensive. 8-10oz leather as usually been split once from a thicker hide, so it's cheaper and more readily available than 12-16oz.

If you are new to leather, one good place to get leather is: Tandy Leather.
https://www.tandyleather.com/en/leather-buying-guide.html
Buying leather online can be gamble, especially of don't know what you want.
Easy way to leather, and an education is to find a local Tandy store location, and visit the remnants/2nds bin in store. The 2nds cost half of virgin/good stuff. Can usually find a hunk of sole leather cheap, as it has hole in middle, and is only good for making small stuff - like a strop!

YMMV
 
#3 ·
I agree with you Karda that hard leather is best, but in my opinion you don't want it too thick otherwise it will depress too much when you strop chisels. I've tried quite a few leather types and thicknesses and recently I purchased some Horse Butt leather strops from Tools for Working Wood. I use one rough side up with some stropping paste on it and one smooth side up with no stropping paste on it. I stuck them to hardwood bases with double-sided tape. They are much better than anything else I've tried.

Rectangle Aircraft Wood Toy Monoplane
 

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#5 ·
I had an old Everlast weightlifting belt, that had shrunk and would not fit around me anymore :), cut it up and glued a nice size piece to a board, works very well.
 
#6 ·
I used to use the thick stuff too. But, earlier this year, I noticed when looking at my edges on my carving tools that the they were getting dubbed. My carving tools are maintained solely on a leather strop so I finally found that my leather was too thick and deformed too much. I got a piece of really thin (~1/32") leather and attached it to a piece of MDF with spray adhesive and my rolled edges went away. On the other hand, the thicker leather has always worked well for me for chisels and plane irons. Probably because they also touch stones or abrasives pretty regularly.

YMMV of course…
 
#7 ·
A lot of carvers are using thinner material now a days, to prevent rolling the edge. Materials like pig skin or even cardboard. Many use cardboard from file folders or cereal boxes glued to mdf or plywood. They are flat, inexpensive, and easy to replace. Just a suggestion that doesn't cost anything to try.
 
#9 ·
I can't carve ChefHDAN but I enjoy whittling away at wood sometimes and occasionally end up with a bauble my grandkids like ;-) Have a look at Mike's ^^ (mpounders) projects if you want to see some real carving!
 
#11 ·
A lot of carvers are using thinner material now a days, to prevent rolling the edge. Materials like pig skin or even cardboard. Many use cardboard from file folders or cereal boxes glued to mdf or plywood. They are flat, inexpensive, and easy to replace. Just a suggestion that doesn t cost anything to try.

- mpounders
As a woodcarver, I no longer use a leather strop, only thin cardboard. You are welcome to check my Projects to see what sharp tools can produce.
 
#13 ·
I use the cardboard from a cereal box with green compound - the same piece for many weeks. Do not worry about the buildup of black until it loses effectiveness. Typically a touch-up of an edge requires only 6-8 passes.
 
#21 ·
I can't help you much on stropping irons, chisels, or carving knives, as I don't do any hand tool work because of a bad back, but I do do leather work such as carving, pictorial drawings, and the like. I made a leather strop years ago to sharpen my swivel knife blades once sharpened on a stone. I used ( I think) 5-7 oz. tanned leather. It needs to be replaced it's so old. Even with a bad back I can sit and do leather working, which isn't so bad…Just take lots of breaks.
 
#22 ·
Thank Rick that is good to know. My back problem is just the opposite, I can't stand for long periods. I got back into wood carving so i could have something that I can sit at when I can't stand at the lathe. Usually I can get what I want done but still I like carving
 
#23 · (Edited by Moderator)
A kind of "for what's it's worth".....I've had 4 back surgeries, and the most recent was on Oct. 3rd of last month. I had to have a spinal fusion from L1--L5, and S 1…..So I'm still healing up from that, and taking lots of therapy ( 2 more weeks to go), and I plan on going to the shop, sitting at my leather work bench, and getting back to it.. No standing behind machines for a while, but that's ok…..My shop will be there and ready when I am…..!!
 
#24 ·
ok i use flexcut gold is that good

- Karda
Flexcut Gold will work just fine. My main strop is cardboard (I'm partial to Cherrios boxes) with green compound. It's now 3-4 years old and still works. Every 2-3 months, I scrub on a bit more compound. I've got a couple of frayed spots on it, so probably time to replace. Don't worry about the black - it still works fine. After a half hour of so of carving, I can feel the knife not cutting like I want, so I make 15 passes on each side along the cardboard strop and can easily tell how much better the blade cuts.
 
#26 ·
You mentioned in your original post that your stropping belt was getting cut and falling apart. The motion of your tool on any stropping surface should be away from the cutting edge. If you are making cuts in the leather, the cutting edge is going into or across the surface.

I sometimes strop my carving gouges with a motion parallel to the cutting edge, because it involves rolling the gouge during the pass across the stropping medium. But if I cut the surface I'm doing it wrong.
 
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