# Overpriced strop



## BJODay (Jan 29, 2013)

Pardon my rant:

I've been using my chisels to make M&T joints. I've been taking breaks and honing them every 10-12 mortises. I thought, well I should really get a leather strop and chrome oxide to make a finer edge. I went to woodcraft and picked up the chrome oxide, < $10, pretty cheap.

The strops started at $28, and went up to $45. Are you kidding me? I bought a piece of leather at a craft store, $6 and that was probably over priced. Took it home and glued it to a piece of pine. I have enough leather left over to make 2 more.

I'm willing to pay for a tool. I'll pay for a convenience if it saves me enough time and gas. But this was too much.

BJ

Rant over!


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## Tim457 (Jan 11, 2013)

But, but it has a flat piece of wood and a piece of leather glued to it. You need to spend $45 on that.

Seriously though, I'm with you, I found some leather scraps at a garage sale. I've heard they improve with washing, but haven't tried it yet. I think I have enough extra that I could mail someone a piece if they need it.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Marketing 101 - 
Get the customer in for 1 cheap item (and have low profit margin on it) - but get them to buy that other item that they 'need' NOW which is overpriced (and make your money on that one to cover your loss of profit on the other 'cheap' item)...

just saying… been working retail at some point in my life (or 2…)


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## 7Footer (Jan 24, 2013)

Agreed BJ I did the same thing, looking at those strops at Woodcraft I just kind of thought 'are you serious?' .. I had some leather scraps I got from a lady who has her own Tack shop nearby, took a piece of the thickest leather in the bag, and used some 3m spray adhesive and glued to a piece of granite I had left over from a kitchen remodel last year. This is my first strop, and as I am a sharpening noob I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I know its a flat surface and it seems to work well enough for me!

Maybe we should get into the homemade strop business! I could cut Woodcraft's prices in half and still make $$ on it!


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## theoldfart (Sep 9, 2011)

7", talk to Red


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## MisterInquisitive (Aug 29, 2012)

The best strops are made from horse butt shell leather, which is difficult to obtain these days and therefore more expensive. For chisels and plane blades you can probably get by with thick vegetable-tanned cow leather available online. But the straight razor set only use horse butt. One somewhat expensive strop that is probably well worth the money is from Tools for Working Wood, here.


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## crank49 (Apr 7, 2010)

There is definitely* no* shortage of horse butts. Have they looked in Washington?


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

I find this senario applies to a lot of items. It pays to shop around.
Good point.


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## Hammerthumb (Dec 28, 2012)

crank49 - you crack me up!


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## Benvolio (Feb 10, 2013)

if anyone is reading this and thinking of the cheapest way to buy leather online - I picked up book binding leather super cheap. It's really thin and will do you a number of strops


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## Tedstor (Mar 12, 2011)

I bought nice piece of 3×9 strop leather off an ebay seller for less than $10. I glued it to a piece of scrap maple. I use it, gleefully, on a regular basis. See here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-X-9-inch-Leather-Strop-By-R-Jones-use-as-is-or-on-your-block-/111185922327?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19e3328917


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## Hinge (Oct 11, 2013)

What's a strop?


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## Kroden (Apr 23, 2012)

That's how Woodcraft operates. Honestly I only tend to buy the stuff they have on sale because that seems like a fair price.

I was looking at buying a mallet the other day. Figured they should be about $20-$25. They were $75. Went home and turned my own.

Was looking for a straight edge a couple months ago. They have a 24" Woodriver aluminum chunk that wouldn't stand on it's side for $40. Ordered a 36" Veritas one from Lee Valley for the same price.


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## ColonelTravis (Mar 19, 2013)

Scott, I was talking to a guy who works at Woodcraft a while back and he was telling me what he pays for with his discount - it's insanely low. Wish I could remember, and it varies with the stuff. I do remember thinking that the markup was more enormous than I had thought. You don't get anywhere near the same kind of discount for a bandsaw as you do for chisels or whatnot, but the discount on the non-machinery made me want to start working there immediately. I like my store and the guys who work there are terrific but when I do buy there - like you - it's almost always when stuff is on sale.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Here's a strop with different compounds. Most folks use
green compound.


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## BigRedKnothead (Dec 21, 2012)

Doh. I'm outed! I've given several Ljs strops as a gift. Partly because I find them so useful, and partly because they are waaaay cheaper to make than to buy. I just get a big chunk of tooling leather from my upholstery buddy or like this on amazon. I wouldn't use anything thinner than 8oz leather.

Btw, LJ Mafe made a great blog on making strops here.


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## jonah (May 15, 2009)

Woodcraft actually sells pieces of leather. Sure, it's overpriced at $12 or whatever, but it's enough for 2-3 strops. That's what I went with. Glued it to some plywood with contact cement. I didn't feel all that ripped off buying and using it. It's really nice leather and has been great so far.

Don't ask me why you can buy a piece of leather for $12 or a smaller piece of leather glued to a scrap of pine for $40.


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## LakeLover (Feb 2, 2013)

AA wood guy.

The strop is what my dad used to woop my ass.

A razor strop use to be standard household stuff.


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## dogmir (Dec 31, 2012)

So I read this thread when I woke up this morning. I am getting ready to tune up a few plane irons and sharpen some new chisels. I happen to agree the notion of not paying a large amount for a piece of leather glued to wood. So off to Hobby Lobby to buy some leather. Now the nice thing about Hobby Lobby for those that don't know is pretty much every week they have a 40% off coupon for one item on their website. Which I was meaning to print off before I left. Opps. Anyway still only set me back $8.99 for 3 lb. of thick leather scraps. They had a few bags. I tried to pick the one with the most large scraps I could find. Not bad for $8.99, that said if I would have printed the coupon it would have been $5.72 lol. So after about 20 mins of effort this is what I ended up with.




























I went of the size referenced by the strops on sale at Woodcraft.
So I made a few that were 2" x 8"










My leftover trimmings.










After all was said and done I got 16 various sizes. The 4 2" x 8"s are in the upper right corner.



















Now I just need to cut some wood and mount them. Thanks to your thread I am guessing I will have enough strops to last me for quite some time!


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## JustJoe (Oct 26, 2012)

I don't see the issue. You're all arguing apples vs. oranges. Yes, you can buy a generic piece of leather and slap it on some pine, but they're selling the FeStop brand leather strop. A unique collaboration between Festool and SawStop, you're paying extra for bragging rights to own the German design, finest european leathers you'll ever find outside of an Amsterdam sex shop, and the patented no-scuff technology that senses when your honing goes astray. If you get a little too carried away with the wrist flexing on the backstroke, and that thumb dips a bit too close and contacts the leather, then a cartridge goes off, banging the backside of the piece of wood (grade-A, select straight-grain imported from the himalayas, none of that domestic [email protected] here.). It hits with enough force to break the wood, but not go through the leather, forcing the leather to curl backwards away from the thumb before you can raise a blister. Of course you'll need to buy a new piece of pine ($27.99) and a safety cartridge ($69.99) but it's all good - if you don't own one, you can't complain because you just wouldn't understand…


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## Tedstor (Mar 12, 2011)

finest european leathers you'll ever find outside of an Amsterdam sex shop

Lol. Nice.


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## racerglen (Oct 15, 2010)

Oh, very well done Joe, LOL…


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