# strop leather



## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

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


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## CaptainKlutz (Apr 23, 2014)

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


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## Brit (Aug 14, 2010)

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.


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## weedeater64 (May 15, 2018)

Soak a doggie rawhide, unroll it and nail it to a block of wood.


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## ChefHDAN (Aug 7, 2010)

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.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

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…


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## mpounders (Jun 22, 2010)

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.


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## ChefHDAN (Aug 7, 2010)

Hokie, thanks for the advice, I am in AWE of those that can carve, one day I may try but my only stropping is for my planes and bench chisels


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

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!


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

A lot of the ones I see aren't much wider than your belt. So if you are doing anything wider I'd suggest a wider piece of Leather than the standard 1" 1 1/2" stuff you usually see.

This guy sells a 3" x 8", it's pretty good leather and he throws in a charge of green. 11 bux, free ship.

Link


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

> 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.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

tell me about the card board. i used I tried it but the cardboard loaded up with black very fast but produced a fine edge before it got loaded with steel. how many strps do you needI use thee brown then red then yellow


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

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.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok i use flexcut gold is that good


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

I bought the 3" wide strop leather from amazon, think it was $4, green compound from HF for $5, glued it to a scrap of plywood and works perfectly for about $10 and wide enough even for my bigger plane irons.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Like Capt. Said Tandy leather. If you got one of their stores near you they often have a scrape barrel you can sort thru.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

don't i wish nearest tandy is a 100 miles away


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

> Soak a doggie rawhide, unroll it and nail it to a block of wood.
> 
> - weedeater64


Now there's an interesting idea!


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

wouldn't that be kinda bumpy


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

> Soak a doggie rawhide, unroll it and nail it to a block of wood.
> 
> - weedeater64
> 
> ...


My dogs would probably steal it within 10 minutes and i would be looking for it all over. Only find it buried in a few years when i plant some tree.


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

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.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

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


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

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…..!!


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## ClaudeF (Sep 22, 2013)

> 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.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

when i first started carving a few years ago flexcut gold was all over the place now what is all over is green compound. whats the difference


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

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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## ksSlim (Jun 27, 2010)

I was a saddle maker. My strop is over 40 yrs old. It was made from 8 oz, leather glued to a !x4.
40 yrs later it works. 1 oz. leather is 1/16 inch thick. grain tan works the best.
Use what ever honing compound works for you. Mine is 1500 grit. Not for sharpening but honing.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

the conditioin of my strop is not knowing what iam was doing, and clumsyness, i also was taking a medication that caused hand tremors, that how one nick got there and it an old belt. i tried the card board, it does a nice job


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

I'm about to polish off a box of Cheerios so I'll be trying that out for carving tools


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

Regarding Flexcut gold… I used it on my Flexcut Slipstrop because it came with a stick of the compound. I can't say I see a bit of difference between it and green compound on a strop though. And green's a bunch cheaper…


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## Brit (Aug 14, 2010)

I bought a couple of Flexcut gold bars because everyone was raving about it, but the bars are so hard I find the leather doesn't accept it very well. I tried holding it over a gas flame to melt it a little before applying it, but it didn't make a lot of difference really. Last night I tried something different. I flaked off some of the bar into a little dish, added about half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and a teaspoon of leather balsam cream. Once it had all melted I mixed it thoroughly and removed it from the heat and put it in the fridge for 5 mins. I then had a paste the consistency of butter which I could easily massage into my strop.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

For a few years, I had a 2" wide leather belt, and had my nail bags and such on it, working construction jobs, when that ended, I needed a use for that belt….cut off the belt end, and been using it for the strop….now and then I rub a bit of Green on the belt's rough side. I leave the smooth side alone.

Someday, I may save up the extra $10, and buy a new leather work belt, and use that as the "new" strop….old one is a bit worn, now…


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

i found the thing about the gold, it won't load the leather. Also after I have sharpened a few time i have to reapply. i have read that the green stays in the strop for a very long time. Is there an advantage to using the rough side. I can't see that it makes a difference


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## Brit (Aug 14, 2010)

Some will say smooth, some will say rough. IMO, it depends on what you're sharpening and what stones/method you use for sharpening the tool prior to stropping. In days gone by when most tradesmen sharpened chisels and plane irons on oil stones (finishing on a really hard stone like a hard black or translucent arkansas), they would be left with a very definite wire edge that needed to be removed before the tool could be used. The smooth side of the leather is best for that, alternating between the bevel side and the back side until the wire edge falls off.

These days though when more people are using water stones or diamond stones, the wire edge is generally removed on the stones and if your highest grit is 8000 or more, you don't need to strop the edge at all. After using the tool for a while though, I like to run the edge over my smooth side up strop a few times to realign it.

I use my rough side up strop with honing compound on it for my carving tools and green woodworking tools mostly, which once sharpened are kept sharp by stropping.


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## Brit (Aug 14, 2010)

Karda - I found the Veritas green bar loads the leather better than Flexcut Gold yellow bar. I think what you have to remember though, is that all of the bars of honing compound are primarily manufactured to load honing wheels, not leather strops.

It is better to buy your chosen compound as a paste IMO. I've used the chromium oxide (which is the active ingredient in the green bars) in paste form and it spreads really easily using just my finger to load the leather.

https://www.workshopheaven.com/chromium-oxide-paste.html

There are other companies selling honing paste too:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xhoning+paste.TRS0&_nkw=honing+paste&_sacat=0


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

thanks Brit


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

If I remember right, I use jewelers rouge on my stop to polish my sharpened swivel blades for leather working.
Also after I sharpen my knives I do the same…..I have used it to stop a couple of plane irons…..!!


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

what color rouge do you use. I use brown and red. I don't bother with black and white because they are within the range of my diamond hones


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

Karda,

I think mine is blue….I haven't looked at it in several months, as it's tucked away in my leather working garb…!!


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok


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## Brit (Aug 14, 2010)

You can't always go on colour though, as different manufacturers vary. They don't all tell you what is in them and what grit (micron size) they equate to either.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

I have 3 compound I use but am I using them in the right order. i sharpen uo to 2000 grit on diamond plates, then I strop on brown, red then flexcut gold. Does that sound right. The brown and red compound are from the 1680s the gold a few years ago. do i need that many grades of compound. I also strop on thin cardboard


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

> Last night I tried something different. I flaked off some of the bar into a little dish, added about half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and a teaspoon of leather balsam cream. Once it had all melted I mixed it thoroughly and removed it from the heat and put it in the fridge for 5 mins. I then had a paste the consistency of butter which I could easily massage into my strop.
> 
> - Brit


Sounds delicious. (Or pornographic)

Just got a WorkSharp 3000. Got a Tandy outlet near me. Gonna go grab some scraps and glue it to MDF. Today i tried just plain MDF with a little of the white stick from HF. Worked well too.


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## squid61 (Feb 17, 2020)

My strop is 8-9 oz. vegtan leather glued to a 3/4" piece of plywood, about 2" X 7". Each "oz." equals 1/64 inch so my strop started out around 1/8" thick, it has compressed slightly after hours of use. The range of weight numbers simply means the leather might not be exactly the same thickness across its area. I work with leather crafts as well as wood so I use a lighter compound on my strop, White vs. Green. The white polishes more than cuts but it's what my Leather tools need. I also got in the habit of stropping every time I picked up a knife doing leather work and have followed that practice for my wood knives, you won't live long enough to wear a blade out on a strop.


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

Mike - Keep in mind the width of your tool. A curved carving tool (gouge) has little contact area with the strop, so the same pressure as a plane blade, for example, will deform the leather surface, allowing the rounding of the edge rather than feathering it out. Take a #9 gouge and lay the bevel on a flat surface. How much area is in contact? With curved cutting edges, it is necessary to roll the gouge from one corner to the other while maintaining the bevel angle.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok phil i'll remember that


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

I have BIG jars of diatomaceous earth, chromium oxide and so on. I started out mixing the chromium oxide with mineral oil and it works, but not as well as I would like. Since then, I started playing with "bees wax" from toilet rings from hardware stores. It works well. I found my five pound box of canning wax and think I'll test drive that.

Anyway, a bit of wax, thinner and chromium oxide should make an interesting compound for the fun stuff we're talking about.

Here's a couple links to posts I made for making your own compounds:

https://www.lumberjocks.com/topics/298873

https://www.instructables.com/id/Making-and-Using-Inexpensive-Buff-Compounds-for-Wo/


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

wish i new this before I made my strop I have some compounds but they are about 30 years old and dry. I applied them any way and they work but they are not at all pasty like others I have seen. I make a compound for polishing before and after finishing my wood turnings. its contains bees wax, mineral oil and diatomaceous earth. I never considered using it for a stropping compound. I'll keep that in mind


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

Karda. there is nothing prohibiting you from breaking up what seems like unusable bars of compound into a jar and soaking them in thinner, until they dissolve. Then add wax until you get a paste with a consistency you like.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok I'll try that how much wax do I need


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

I never measure or weigh the wax. I just mix it in until I get a consistency I like.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok


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## moke (Oct 19, 2010)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vegetable-Tanned-Leather-Belt-Blank-10-11oz/253696356290?hash=item3b117b2fc2:m:mcQAT4wixceg0Lf6LLxLnaw

I've made many strops with ebay leather and cut-off wood


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

that what my strop is


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

kelly Ihave some bees wax and mineral mix i use for wet sanding bowls can I use that with the compound or is the oil a problem


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

Karda, I went out into the shop and dug up a bottle of chromium oxide I'd mixed up with mineral oil and added bee's wax to it, and threw in a bit of paint thinner to dissolve the wax. Though not all the wax had yet dissolved, the green went onto a sanded leather belt fine, and the belt worked great for a blade touch up.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok I'll give it a try. i hate ti think I have ruined a good piece of leather by using bad compound


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

You didn't (ruin anything).


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok


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## Foghorn (Jan 30, 2020)

Just my opinion and experience of course.  I use strop leather with green compound from Levalley for knives and razors. I've had the Veritas power sharpening system for a lot of years and use old dress shirt, cotton material on a platen with green compound for plane and chisel blade finishing. It is more idiot proof for me in not rounding edges. Having said that, I use Waterstones and a honing guide a lot as well up to 8000 and it cuts fine hairs as well.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

ok


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

Kelly I soaked a piece of the finest compound in paint thinner, the thinner became brown over night but the piece of compound is hard as a rock. I mix some of the liquid in mt oil and bees wax mix. Do I cover the mixture or leat the thinner evaporate off. Now it is a thick liquid. how do i apply it, as a liquid or as a paste thanks Mike


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## kelvancra (May 4, 2010)

I'm thinking we might have to shave and pulverize a hard stick. I'll go test drive one of them.


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## Karda (Nov 19, 2016)

remember the stuff I am using i got in the mid 1980s its old and dry and hard and i should not have used it


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