Super strop!

[badger]

I'm fitting out my new work room and I bought a combination belt/disc sander for sanding edges. Same as in the pic.

I hardly used the disc at all on my old one, just the belt.

I got to thinking and thought I'd use it to make a super stropping disc. I removed the table and the paper sanding disc, cut a 150mm circle out of 3-4 Ounce veg tan and double side-taped it in place. I gave it a good hammering to be sure it was well stuck and very flat.

I then took a piece of red jeweller's rouge and fed the leather with it while the disc was running. The friction generated enough heat to melt the rouge into the leather. I rubbed it nice and flat with a leather scrap while still at full speed.

I use a standard utility knife, but with an Irwin 'Blue blade', for almost all my cutting. I gently rested the blade at the appropriate angle to the downward side of the running disc and let it do it's thing.

Instant mirror edge!

I cut a piece of 5-6 Ounce veg tan to test it. I thought I'd only scored the surface, but I'd gone right through.

So, I spent the morning sharpening and stropping all my tools

If anyone has an idle disc, this is a great way to make a labour saving strop.

Cheers,

Karl

[Greywynd]

Careful now, you'll have every piece of leather you have cut into little tiny pieces before you know it!!

Edited January 6, 2009 by Greywynd

[Randy Cornelius]

What is even better is make a leather belt for the belt sander and put your rouge on it. That is what I have done and it works very well to power strop all your knives. When you make the belt, over lap the ends at least 2" and skive them down to a feather edge and cement them together. I make my belts out of splits. When I order leather from W&C and have the thickness split, once in awhile I have them send the split piece and that is what I use to make belts for my sander. The last one has lasted over a year now.

Randy

[badger]

I had another idea.

I wanted something to strop the inside of the blade, inside the groove, on my edgers.

I bought a dead cheap little junior hacksaw, removed the blade and replaced it with a piece of string.... tensioned between the blade slots.

I rubbed some chrome polish paste into the tightened string and then drew it briskly through the notches of the edgers toward the tip, polishing the inside edge of the blades.

They are super sharp now.

Mad stropping day, I guess

Cheers,

Karl

[UKRay]

Mad stropping day, I guess

I reckon its that hat... warm up the brain too much and you never know what might happen...

[badger]

[Timbo]

Thanks for sharing this Karl!!! I also have a disc sander that is unused.......but will soon be put to good use. It is hard to tell from the pic but is it flesh side or grain side out?? I wonder if regular sanding disk glue will hold it on there. Hell, I wonder if Barge will hold in on there?? Guess I'll just have to find out.

Thanks again!!!

Tim

[badger]

Hi Tim,

The disc is grain side out, needs to be smooth.

I used double sided tape, it's plenty strong enough. You could use any contact adhesive, I'm sure Barge would work. I would get a scrap piece of leather(grain side to grain side) to protect the stropping surface and hammer the hell out of it with a smooth faced mallet to get it well glued and as flat as possible. I burnished the edge of my leather disc, so there's no chance of catching it on anything.

The machine in the picture turns the disc anti-clockwise. You need to make sure the blade you're stropping is on the downward side of the disc (the left on this machine) or it could catch the blade and propel it upward.... at your face. Nasty.

You need hardly any pressure if the leather is fed with rouge, just rest the piece gently against the disc.

I just top it up by feeding with a small amount of automotive chrome polish paste before I use it. It works really well.

I've resurrected seven ancient round punches since yesterday!

Cheers,

Karl

[Ian]

The machine in the picture turns the disc anti-clockwise. You need to make sure the blade you're stropping is on the downward side of the disc (the left on this machine) or it could catch the blade and propel it upward.... at your face. Nasty.

No kidding - I learned this the hard way when shapening my splitter blade - darn thing spun past my face so close I could feel the breeze as it flew by. Worse part is that it put a big ding in the edge of the blade. Reminds me of the first time I used a table saw when I was a kid.

[Gibbsleatherworks]

I had planned on using an old electric motor to mount a wooden burnisher on. Adding a round strope to the top of it would work the same way as your disk sander. Genious idea, thanks.