Strop leather

[pc44730]

I've seen articles on making strops and descriptions of how they are made. Thus far, I've not learned a lot about what makes a good strop leather. I found in an antique store several different strops of different grades, ranging from a very hard leather with an almost equally hard cloth backing (but no handle) to a very soft and flexible leather with no backing.

I ask because I have some nice thick leather and think I could make a strap with a 'D' ring and a handle, but I'm not sure that it would thus be a strop.

Thanks!

PC

 

[ambrose]

It depends on the condition of the vintage ones. Sounds like the have "barbers ends" basically no handle, my favorite. If you have basic tooling leather I say skip it Ive tried it for stropping and its not good, YMMV. Red latigo or horse hide combined with cotton or linen seems to be the ideal. My personal favorite at the moment would have to be Tony Millers horse hide, cotton combo.