Well, if you don't know by now, I am one of those that has to experiment. I blame my dad, who is an engineer, and for engineers, "if it ain't broke, take it apart and fix it anyway." I got some scraps of saddle/tooling leather first, and it works. After hearing a number of comments about how thicker leather can flex under pressure, which can round over your edges, and watching Eric Lofstrom, a well known turner, I went for thinner leather. Vegetable tanned and in the 1 to 2 oz. thickness. That worked as well. Eric used kangaroo leather because 'it doesn't compress'. I tracked some of that down, and really liked it. Glued it to some poplar. I also just tried applying the compounds to some poplar that I first surfaced with my hand planes. Thus far, I think I like that the best. With the leathers, it seems that I have to strop both sides of the cutting edge a couple of times to remove the burr. On the straight wood, once seems to be enough. I do have pine, but rejected that because of the early/late wood grains, which I would expect to eventually create ridges, kind of like what happens to it if you take a wire brush to it. I rejected MDF because the surface is really rough. I have yet to try cabinet grade plywood, but think that could work well. I have also heard of using canvass, and/or old jeans, which should hold the stropping compounds fairly well. I did use the jewelers rouge and that green 60,000 grit compound, and that does leave a better final edge. So, what do you all use to put your stropping compounds on? I guess I could also ask what compounds do you use?
robo hippy