Questions on stropping devices

[Alan Turner]

I have some questions relating to stropping carving tools. I am beginning to carve, and want to make some strops with leather that I have. Here are the questions.

--Is one type of leather better than others?

--I will glue the leather to wood. A flat one, and various profiles from dowels, moldings, etc. What glue is best for this? Hot Hide gle, the old fashioned way? This might be my preference. If not, then yellow glue? Epoxy?

--I think I am going to get the Spyderco ceramic sharpening stones becuase they will stay flat and not be trashed by the various profiles. Who has the best price? Googleing, and 4 pages later, I found knivesplus.com, at $22 for the med. and fine, and $35 for the ultra fine. Is there better pricing out there?

Thanks for the help, guys.

Alan

[Gene Collison]

Hi Alan,

I strop my plane irons and chisels sometimes as the final step. About the only requirement to a leather strop is that it have a rough but soft surface on the stropping side that is able to hold the polishing media which in my is case green polishing rouge. I use an old heavy wide belt that I don't wear anymore, it is about 2 inches wide without stitching. I place one end in my bench vise and lay it on my bench and strop away. The action is much more aggressive than one might think and it is very easy to dub the end of a tool if your angle is not correct. About 2 light strokes is all that is needed. Rub the rouge on the belt until you see a tone change in the leather.
I have seen strops for sale for $35. which are nothing more than two pieces of soft leather stapled or glued to a stick. Kind of aggressive pricing if you ask me, just make your own.:) Can't help you on the stones though.

Gene

[Mark Singer]

Alan,I have a flat and profile wheel on the Tormek...a little mineral oil and the paste and that is it!

[Alan Turner]

Mark,
I have the Tormek, with both wheels that you do, but in my carving class, I must say that the hand stropping seems to geve a finer edge. The teacher mentioned that he thought the tormek was too slow a speed for this, but he does not care for powered stropping in any event.
Alan

[Mark Singer]

Alan,

What are these new stones I thought you were sold on the Shapton...I wa even thinking about getting a set!

[Alan Turner]

Mark,
Because of the shape of carving tools, if one used the Shaptons they would quickly be out of flat, and need flattening. The Spyderco stones are a very hard ceramic, need no lubrication (which is unimportant), and do not get gouged with gouges. Hence the choice. For chisels and plane irons, the Shaptons are wonderful!
Alan

[Bob Smalser]

Irons, chisels, gouges, lathe tools, chip carving knives, kitchen knives, carving tools....I strop them all on the 8" buffer with green rouge on a flexible, stitched muslin wheel because it's quicker and more effective.

A hard felt wheel and green rouge alone removes a good bit of steel and touches up HSS lathe tools all by its lonesome.

http://pic3.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/3854395/47480746.jpg

[Joel Moskowitz]

Horse butt strops are the best and they are nice and thick and dense and don't require gluing down.
Not having used ceramic stones I can't say much one way or another but I know Chris Pye greatly prefers regular arkansas stones.

[Steve Wargo]

I've got a few strops that I made out of old belts. It's O.K. is the belt is smooth leather, because it's easy to rough it up with a plane iron before applying the compound. For Honing gouges I have a few small pieces of pine that I've cut a few molding profiles into and I apply the red jeweler's rouge to that. It makes it easy to hone since the shape is already cloase to the gouge's sweep. This also works nice for honing molding plane irons. I do have a large pice of dowel that I've wrapped partially in leather to hone the inside of outcanel sweep gouges. Hope this helps.

[Alan Turner]

Thanks guys. Any comment on the best type of glue to use for applying leather to wood?

Alan

[Tony Sade]

I certainly don't mean to hijack this thread. but I wondered if someone could describe the technique for stropping on leather (as opposed to Bob S's use of a powered device.) I vaguely remember when I was a kid, watching the barber strop his straight razor on the leather strap hooked to the barber chair, but I can't figure how that would work on the end of a narrow chisel or plane blade. Thanks