Pete, the Hawaiian saddlemaker

[kohalajohn]

Pete is saddlemaker, and has been working on the ranches of the big island of Hawaii, mainly on the Parker Ranch.

I wanted to make my own strop here, so went down to his home where he keeps his shop. He is in partial retirement, but still has a wonderful shop.

He fixed up a knife sheath for me, and then we found some leather for a strop.

He pulled out a large piece of skirt leather, also known as saddle leather. Using a round ulu knife, he cut out a piece 24 inches long for me. I'll probably trim it to 2.5 inches wide.

I have some chicago screws and when I get the rest of the hardware I'll assemble it and take it out for a run.

Photos attached.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Very nice. Glad you shared your experience.

Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk

 

[stone and strop]

I'll bet that place smelled awesome!
I LOVE the smell of leather. Let us know how it works out for you.

 

[6Cuda6]

Yup and pics too....

 

[SRNewb]

Nice!

 

[kohalajohn]

Hello all.

Today I used Pete's leather and made my first strop. Hugely satisfying.

I cut it down to 2 3/4 by 24 inches. It is very thick leather, a quarter inch.

It's so thick that I took a piece of another thinner leather as the foldover to hold the D ring. I had a strop that i had sliced with the razor so I sacrificed four inches of that.

The D ring was 2 1/2 inches across, slightly smaller than the strop leather. But I like 2 3/4 inches on my strop, and I can't find D rings larger than 2 1/2. So I just used my quarter inch punch to punch holes at each side and allow the D ring to fit just fine. It actually made everything a more snug and secure fit.

Then I punched three holes in all pieces of the leather.

The chicago screws are one quarter inch in diameter.

The female side of the chicago screw has four sharp barbs that sink into the leather and prevent it from spinning.

Although I had plenty of spare leather and spare D rings, I chose to leave the bottom bare. A barber end. The reason for this is that I like some convexity in my strops. I always slide my cupped hand down the strop once before shaving. It gives it a slight touch of oil and it maintains a very slight convexity. On store bought strops I use my grip just above the bottom hardware to maintain a slight convexity. I was never gripping the bottom hardware anyway.

I chose not to bother with a swivel. The D ring lines up on the wall hook naturally by itself and I like the simplicity of that. In fact, when I stropped with it, this system lined up better than my old strop with a swivel. The swivel just allowed the top of the strop to swivel away from the angle I was holding at the bottom ,inducing a twist. With just the D ring, that twist was gone and it turned straight to follow my hand. Much better.

The store bought strop that I sacrificed for this project, was one that I sliced. At the upper right. And it was the one with the swivel. I suspect that slice was because the swivel allowed the top half to twist away from me. At least I choose to blame the swivel, not my inattention.

I don't like swivels and I don't like bottom hardware. So that makes strop making pretty simple.

If I happen to slice this baby with my razor, I'll just swap the hardware to the other end and move the slice to the bottom outside.

Anyway, I stropped and shaved with it and it went well. It was flat, taught, fit my Bismark razor perfectly, and did the job just fine. A very happy morning.

Photos below. Have a look.

 

[GearNoir]

Nice work! My FIL is back and forth between there and the mainland all the time on cultural business...may have to have him inquire for me!

 

[6Cuda6]

Yup will be on the big island for 2 weeks late March for business, just might have to swing by as well.

 

[kohalajohn]

6Cuda6, contact me and I'll hook you up with old Pete. Sundays are best. Actual cowboys hang out with him and we all have coffee and just hang.

 

[mawashi]

Wonderful a bit thick but I'm sure it'll last a few lifetimes.

If you are looking for 3" D rings, I found this:
3 1/2 INCH STAINLESS STEEL BEVELED D RING

Cheers

 

[6Cuda6]

6Cuda6, contact me and I'll hook you up with old Pete. Sundays are best. Actual cowboys hang out with him and we all have coffee and just hang.

Will do Sir before i head over your way in March.