Can you resurface a strop with a cabinet scraper?

[J B Addis]

Short answer: it sure seems like it.

I had an old strop, pretty thin leather, perhaps like horsehide or maybe shell. Hopeful Ebay purchase that was more beat up than I had guessed. I need a travel strop, so I decided to see if I could answer the this thread's titular question, which I'd had for a while. Everyone always complains about grit contamination while sanding strops, and sanding leather is a pain anyway in my experience, so what else might work? A sharp cabinet scraper seemed like an obvious answer.

I clamped the strop to a board and got to work. The surface was clean and fresh within a few minutes. I wasn't timing myself but I would guess under 15. The leather is pretty smooth, not Kanoyama glassy but quite usable, and a bit of burnishing would no doubt take it further without much trouble.

Final thoughts: I've only tried this one piece of leather, which is hard, dense, tight fibered stuff. I'm not sure how well it would work on a looser grained, softer sort of hide. Perhaps a future experiment.

An approximate before/after:

 

[duke762]

Scrapers work particularly well on grubby old shell strops. On regular types of hides, take care not to scrape or sand through the skin or it will be forever nappy. Looking good Addis!

 

[Frank Shaves]

@J B Addis, Thank you for posting!

My first strop is in need of resurfacing.

Did you use a rectangular cabinet scraper like this?

 

[duke762]

I think that will work famously. I made one just like it out of blue tempered sheet spring steel. Mine sure does peel off the black, gunky build up. Like I said, careful on the skin side of strops or it will be a flesh side out when done. I've saved some nice shell strops like this.

 

[J B Addis]

@J B Addis, Thank you for posting!

My first strop is in need of resurfacing.

Did you use a rectangular cabinet scraper like this?

Yes, mine is a very similar piece of equipment. Important to note that cabinet scrapers require sharpening before use and generally cannot be used correctly out of the box. This isn't terribly difficult and there are plenty of youtube videos on the subject. You'll need a file, a relatively hard stone in the 600-1000 range (a fine india or any ark is great), and a burnisher. You could probably use the spine of a trashed razor as a burnisher if you don't have one and don't plan to use the scraper often enough to warrant buying one.

 

[hogwild]

Round screwdriver handle works to burnish

 

[Tony Miller]

Round screwdriver handle works to burnish

I have used the round shank of old screwdrivers with good results on my scrapers for woodworking. The vintage, wooden handle screwdrivers seem to have really good steel that burnishes the edge well.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Round screwdriver handle works to burnish

Just make sure that there aren't any "hanging chads" on the handle before starting though. I scratched up a nice strop that way.