I've decided it's time to get a good-sized strop or two - my little ones work reasonably well, but they're short, and I want something wider too.
Trouble is, 3" strops are expensive - there are some better bargains in the US, but with shipping and (probably) import tax and service charge, the difference gets lost.
Now, I'm not criticizing the cost of nice strops at all - the ones I've looked at are beautiful and skillfully made, and I expect the makers are actually getting a poor per-hour return on their labour. But I'm not interested in a piece of art - a strop is just a functional tool to me, and it doesn't need to be pretty. (In fact, my current favourite is a very cheap one that really didn't work when new - but heavy sanding and some oiling has turned it into a very ugly but good performer).
So, I have some 3" leather in two kinds - some veg tanned leather and some English bridle leather (the former seems to have more draw, and the latter is very smooth). And I have the necessary metalwork and tools. But what's holding me up is deciding how to deal with the pre-strop side.
I have pieces of cotton canvas and linen - my thoughts are to make two strops with the two kinds of leather, and use cotton for one and linen for the other.
But my cotton and linen are in metre squares, and they'll fray where they're cut, so what do I do about that? I can't seam it and end up with a strop with thick ridges along each edge, so I'm wondering about glue. What if I glue two thicknesses together with a flexible PVA adhesive, and then cut the strop piece from that? Maybe the stuck-down edges would then not fray?
(I also have a length of 3" cotton webbing on order that's 4mm thick, so that's a fray-free option, but I'd still like to find a way to try the cotton and linen that I already have.)
Any thoughts?
Trouble is, 3" strops are expensive - there are some better bargains in the US, but with shipping and (probably) import tax and service charge, the difference gets lost.
Now, I'm not criticizing the cost of nice strops at all - the ones I've looked at are beautiful and skillfully made, and I expect the makers are actually getting a poor per-hour return on their labour. But I'm not interested in a piece of art - a strop is just a functional tool to me, and it doesn't need to be pretty. (In fact, my current favourite is a very cheap one that really didn't work when new - but heavy sanding and some oiling has turned it into a very ugly but good performer).
So, I have some 3" leather in two kinds - some veg tanned leather and some English bridle leather (the former seems to have more draw, and the latter is very smooth). And I have the necessary metalwork and tools. But what's holding me up is deciding how to deal with the pre-strop side.
I have pieces of cotton canvas and linen - my thoughts are to make two strops with the two kinds of leather, and use cotton for one and linen for the other.
But my cotton and linen are in metre squares, and they'll fray where they're cut, so what do I do about that? I can't seam it and end up with a strop with thick ridges along each edge, so I'm wondering about glue. What if I glue two thicknesses together with a flexible PVA adhesive, and then cut the strop piece from that? Maybe the stuck-down edges would then not fray?
(I also have a length of 3" cotton webbing on order that's 4mm thick, so that's a fray-free option, but I'd still like to find a way to try the cotton and linen that I already have.)
Any thoughts?
