The Gold Daddy Strop!

[Slash McCoy]

I made this! Heavy duty strop for my Gold Dollars. I call it "Who's Yo Daddy?". My inspiration was the Big Daddy strop sold by the no longer in business Star Shaving Company. No linen, canvas, fire hose, seatbelt, micropiconanobittycloth, or whatever the lastest is, in cloth strop fashion. Just veg tanned cowhide and two big D rings so I can hang it one end up or the other, whichever. I just spent an hour hand rubbing it and stropped one of my modded GD66 razors, and it will definitely gitter done. Silky smooth, light but noticeable draw, plenty of real estate at 18" of usable length and just a hair over 2-3/4" wide. Also I used 3 Chicago screws instead of the 2 that secured the ends of the Big Daddy strop.

Sorry about the pics. My camera is getting all whack on me.

 

[BSAGuy]

Nice. Very manly!

 

[David]

Nice strop Slash!

 

[sfeile]

Looks very nice!

 

[jlindy]

Nice! That should tame a GD no problem! =)

 

[Legion]

Those rings look good. I like them.

 

[Slash McCoy]

Those rings look good. I like them.

They are rings used for climbing harnesses or safety or sailing harnesses. I wouldn't mind finding some more, reasonably priced, actually.

 

[Legion]

They are rings used for climbing harnesses or safety or sailing harnesses. I wouldn't mind finding some more, reasonably priced, actually.

You could use one on the bottom, and a swivel at the top. Then you only need one per strop.

 

[Slash McCoy]

You could use one on the bottom, and a swivel at the top. Then you only need one per strop.

I don't like it that way. I like to be able to flip the strop end for end. A pair of D rings is my preferred configuration. And actually if I did NOT want to be able to swap ends, I would probably go with "barber end" (plain leather with no hardware at all) for the bottom end.

 

[spoken36]

Well thought out and executed. Cool D-rings.

 

[Galaktus]

Beautiful job.

 

[StubbleTrouble]

That looks nice. Can't beat a DIY project turned success.

 

[Slash McCoy]

That looks nice. Can't beat a DIY project turned success.

Thanks, and thanks to all, for the kind words. I was actually kinda surprised at how well it does it's job. I guess a strop IS just a piece of leather, after all. Actually though, this leather was pretty unruly. Had to soak it for days, then rub it flat with a bottle, let it dry, and apply my secret oil treatment consisting of jojoba oil, meets foot oil, a little sesame oil and a few drops each of linseed oil and 10w40. I just used my imagination and what I had on hand so we will see, a few years down the line, if it worked.

One thing I learned on the third one I made was... don't try to iron leather. Don't even. What I learned on the first one, pictuered in the thread, is mark the holes and use a proper leather hole punch. I guess I never learned anything from the second one. I got a bunch more pieces cut and treated, so when I get to it I will make a bunch more, some to PIF and some to sell. And maybe one more to keep.

I hereby urge anyone trying to beat high prices to make his own strop, too. Okay so I am making my own razors and my own strops. I guess I do brushes next. Then soap, maybe?

Guys, don't be afraid to try making stuff! If you succeed, you can post, and bask in glory. If you fail, nobody needs to know!

 

[CBLindsay]

. ....I guess a strop IS just a piece of leather, after all. ....

I hereby urge anyone trying to beat high prices to make his own strop, too. Okay so I am making my own razors and my own strops. I guess I do brushes next. Then soap, maybe?

Guys, don't be afraid to try making stuff! If you succeed, you can post, and bask in glory. If you fail, nobody needs to know!

I couldn't agree more Slash. I don't think anyone should be afraid to try (more than once if needed) to make their own basic gear. A strop can be very simple it it can be quite extravagant, but like you say...its just a piece of leather.
I made my own strop and have made several linen/cloth attachments as well. I got lucky and found a nice length of veg tanned leather tucked in a scrap bag I bought at Hobby Lobby. That bag cost $6 and I just had to figure out how to do the rest.
I've made some "dogs" but even those are halfway decent (or some smaller fraction).

Thanks for sharing your process, nice to know even a stubborn hunk of hide can be brought around.

 

[labrax]

I made this one and it works for me.

Sent via Tapatalk from phone

 

[Slash McCoy]

Looks like a good 'un.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Nice strop. What happened to Star shaving? I never picked up one of their strops, but they looked decently made and it seemed plenty of folks were buying them. It's a pretty niche market, so I can see them needing another source of income, but overhead couldn't have been too much either. Another question to put beside "Why do they refuse to offer a real secondary component instead of just felt" I suppose.

 

[Slash McCoy]

I think it was an older guy in failing health and he just couldn't hack it any more. Yeah the strops were a great value for the low cost. Nice and big. And lots of guys liked the felt.

 

[147_Grain]

Thanks, and thanks to all, for the kind words. I was actually kinda surprised at how well it does it's job. I guess a strop IS just a piece of leather, after all. Actually though, this leather was pretty unruly. Had to soak it for days, then rub it flat with a bottle, let it dry, and apply my secret oil treatment consisting of jojoba oil, meets foot oil, a little sesame oil and a few drops each of linseed oil and 10w40. I just used my imagination and what I had on hand so we will see, a few years down the line, if it worked.

One thing I learned on the third one I made was... don't try to iron leather. Don't even. What I learned on the first one, pictuered in the thread, is mark the holes and use a proper leather hole punch. I guess I never learned anything from the second one. I got a bunch more pieces cut and treated, so when I get to it I will make a bunch more, some to PIF and some to sell. And maybe one more to keep.

I hereby urge anyone trying to beat high prices to make his own strop, too. Okay so I am making my own razors and my own strops. I guess I do brushes next. Then soap, maybe?

Guys, don't be afraid to try making stuff! If you succeed, you can post, and bask in glory. If you fail, nobody needs to know!

Did you start from strips or cut up a hide?

 

[Slash McCoy]

Did you start from strips or cut up a hide?

It was a fairly big piece of leather, originally. A remnant of some sort. I cut it up myself, slightly oversize so I could recut it nice and straight after drying and treating.