Thread: Leather for stropping

I use old leather belts, available cheaply from an OpShop. The old wide style of the 70's are the best.

Peter.

I too have used leather belts although they can be a bit hard especially if they have been dyed and badly stored. They do need to be a bit supple so sometimes well used belts work better than newer ones. Recently I bought some off cuts of natural leather hide from a leather store (also sells lotsa bikie type gear) One of these pieces was a supple 1.2 m 65 mm x 4 mm, part which I used to make a leather faced mallet. I'm currently using a 350 mm bit from that and it works really well.

Ask your local bootmaker - they may give you what you want, or sell it fairly cheaply.

I suggest that the best leather hone would use very hard leather, nothing that permits the blade to sink into it. The danger is of dubbing an edge.

I have made mine out of chamois leather contact-glued to a hardwood block. This is then thin and hard, but it is absorbant enough to hold the Veritas green rouge (crayon).

Otherwise try plain MDF.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Cheap leather aprons from hardware stores.

Derek, the problem I have found is that if leather is too hard and not flat it will not do its job. If is a little supple it should make a better contact. gluing to a flat board sounds like a good idea.

The leather from shoe inners is fine, I also use the green Veritas compound. I just made a wooden thing with a handle and attached the leather to that. I copied it from one I saw at a Wood Show, for which some optimist wanted $50!

Originally Posted by derekcohen

..... leather contact-glued to a hardwood block. ......

If you are coming to the Toowoomba Sharpening Day, you might see some examples of these

cheers
Wendy

Bother... When I saw that Wendy had contributed, I thought that she was going to say that all she has to do is rub the relevant tool against her red kit.....Get your mind out of the gutter, lad....

reverse garbage in brisbane always seem to have lumps of scrap leather.. various.
These recycling stores are probably in most major cities always worth a look.

cheers