Wooden Strop

[Eric Smith]

This piece of wood came off a maple blank I am trying to work into a rifle stock. I thought I might put it to use. The idea of a strop came to mind. So I cut it with my jigsaw to roughly look like a paddle, then stained it with some Minwax, and glued a piece of an old belt too it with Titebond glue. Now when I have to sharpen my chisels, I will have something to use as a strop.

[smart dog]

Hi,
Very nice.  I made and use a strop as well.  On mine, the wood is cut flush to the leather so that the entire blades of carving knives can be stropped right up to the handle without the bulky handle getting in the way.  In addition, I rounded the wood at the top and bent the leather over it to create a tight radius.  That allows me to strop the inside of many of my gouges to remove burs from sharpening.  I also charge my strop with simichrome polish.

dave

[Eric Smith]

Good sugestions. I may have to make a few more strops.

[JB2]

hmmm...me too!  I really see the need for bigger strops.  I bought one of those small strop thingys from Woodcraft, the small 4x4" block with many shapes.  works nice, but waaaay too small.   

Just a question for others who may have done this- could the wood be left bare (open grain?) and sharged with compound?  the small one from woodcraft can be charged on the wood side ( I think), but don't know what type of wood it is.  Can you charge maple with compound?  Maybe I need to 'search'.  thanks

[JB2]

Ah, yes.  Answered my own question.  'Search' is a good thing.  Now, where did that old belt get to?

[bluenoser]

Eric
I really like your strop.  Good looking and functional hand-made tools are always a pleasure to use.

For a strictly utilitarian strop, try a piece of cardboard such as the inside surface of a cereal box.  It works well and one can have several charged with varying grades of abrasive. When it gets worn or contaminated, just toss it and have another bowl of wheaties.

Laurie

[Scott Semmel]

IMHO Basswood makes the best strop, zero rollover, easy to form to the radious of gouges inside and out, cheap and long lasting. not nearly as pretty s yours but does make things supper sharp.

[Roger Fisher]

IMHO Basswood makes the best strop, zero rollover, easy to form to the radious of gouges inside and out, cheap and long lasting. not nearly as pretty s yours but does make things supper sharp.

Jeez Scott where you been?

My strop is an old barber's razor strop hanging by the bench.  Put the thing on a hard backer as shown should be done.

BTW I think that same strop landed on my butt many a time many a moon (pardon the pun) ago.

[Scott Semmel]

Roger,my brother passed away, I'm trying to keep the family farm running, my guns and shop are pretty much collecting dust

[wet willy]

What would you add to the wood/leather strop, if anything, for final sharpening chisels, etc. Would you add fine valve grinding compound, JB bore compound, or

[Jerry V Lape]

Hudson's medium concentration of 3 micron diamond emulsion works  very well. 

[DaveP (UK)]

It's probably not the best way, but I find it convenient to use bare wooden strops for v tools, very small gouges and any other gouges that I don't have stones to suit.
I work the outside surfaces up to translucent Arkansas level then use the tool inverted over the end grain corner of a piece of scrap wood - pine will do - just to cut a matching profile. I dress this with car chrome polish from a tube and use it to polish the internal face. Its a very fine abrasive, but then it'll be a very fine wire edge to be removed. Sometimes I give the outside a couple of wipes on a leather strop, but other times I just use it.
I'll use the strop for a while then just recut it.

I have tried buffing soap but it was too hard to spread out nicely. The stuff I use is called Solvol Autosol. I have no idea if its available over there but there must be equivalents.

[olie]

Can yo charge a strop with lapping compound?

   Olie

[WadePatton]

What would you add to the wood/leather strop, if anything, for final sharpening chisels, etc. Would you add fine valve grinding compound, JB bore compound, or

Can yo charge a strop with lapping compound?

   Olie

Razor stroppers, like me, use compounds on our touch-up strops and keep clean leather strops for proper burnishing of the shave-ready edge.

Look up the shaving sites and all the stroptastic ideas and compounds those guys talk about.

The green stuff (generally-there is a brand that uses colors differently) is chromium oxide.  BUT that all chromium oxide is not the same.  The shaving razor guys have discovered that most of the "woodworking" CrOx is largely un-refined and has particles much to large for shaving razors.  

Look for Chromium Oxide paste, not the crayon(if you want the good stuff).  The valve lapping compound is rough stuff, but may be the ticket for wood "shaving".

There are other oxides and then there are the diamond pastes.  As Comfort is not a issue with wood whacking, probably throw out most of what i just typed.  


Yes, strops work pasted and unpasted, depends on the level of polish/speed of refreshing you need.  I'd think that a good clean CrOx would be plenty fine and possibly a good follow up to the "fine" side of the ubiquitous Clover brand valve lapping compound.  Or just use it alone.  I get mine from Maggard Razors-it's .05 micron.

I'm a better honer/shaver than a woodworker...



(I use a couple of different oxides after the 12,000 stone and for touch ups, finishing on vintage Cordovan Shell (horse rump).

http://www.maggardrazors.com/product-category/hones-strops/