leather strop

[Steve Sheehan]

I just bought an old barber shop leather strop at a flea market . It says "sharpen this side " and the reverse side " finish this side " . I want to use this to finish my plane blades . Should I use some type of compound on it ?

[Tom Winship]

I'm not sure about the razor strop, but I use a piece of smooth leather (actually a shoe sole blank that I acquired at a shoe repair shop). I use chromium oxide (the green stuff) crayon on the leather before stropping the plane or chisel blades.

[Terry Beadle]

On a leather strop, some use some abrasive and some don't. The technique for getting a straight razor sharp is slightly different than a chisel or plane blade. I recommend you go on youtube and watch some of the straight razor videos to see what I'm suggesting.

For a chisel or plane blade, I think a better solution is a bass wood strop with either green abrasive or the gold from FlexCut. The stropping portion of the sharpening process is just a few strokes. You are not shaping the blade edge but rather making sure with the strop that the last bits of the burr are removed.

A leather strop used for plane blades or chisels should be glued to a trued surface. I'd recommend a rock maple or another fine grained hard wood that's been made dead flat. Use the hard side of the leather on the blade and the soft side to glue down. The hard side of a horse hide strop should not need any abrasive. Also don't use heavy pressure on a leather strop. A bass wood strop on the other hand can stand a firm pressure and just a few strokes, maybe 4 on the bevel and 4 on the back is plenty.

I hope this helps....enjoy the shave...er...shavings...what the hay enjoy both !

[george wilson]

Most people use the suede side of the leather. I use the smooth side as I think the fluffy side of the leather might round the edge too much. I use Flitz or Simichrome silver polish. Green chrome as mentioned above is o.k.,too.

Don't over do the charging. Let the polish really wear out and get all gray. It is wearing smoother as you use it. I only dop on a few more dabs of polish about once a year. I suppose wood would also be o.k. for a strop,though I just use leather out of habit.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Timely discussion. My grandfather's barber strop had two sides: one was cotton webbing, and the other was smooth heather. I'm making one up soon that follows that principle. I'm going to use green compound on the webbing side, and nothing on the smooth leather side for honing. Does this theory sound like it makes sense to anyone?

[Richard Niemiec]

Some folk have been known to strop on a plain brown paper bag rolled up tight and flattened... it has some grit to it.

[george wilson]

Richard,I did that very thing when I was a kid with no money. i went from a cheap gray hardware stone to paper. By stropping on the paper long enough,I got a very sharp edge.

[harry strasil]

I use both sides of a piece of about 1/4 thick cowhide from a whole hide I purchased years ago. After stoning(honeing), I strop first on the rough side of the piece, then flip it over to the smooth side which I have rubbed with the brownish red jewelers rouge from the jewelry store repairman, the finish up with a few strokes using brown paper bag piece on a smooth board. Works for me for both plane and chisel edges, and I never spend over about 5 to 10 minutes on an edge. Scary sharp with wet/dry on a piece of discontinued quartz counter top sample works if I need to hog off quite a bit. FWIW Dpt.