How do I make a Leather Strop?

[Colt Hammerless]

Thanks for the reply Chef niloc!

[newfiebackflip]

Ya I am a member on that site. Just joined it a few weeks back, lots of good info and lots of good members.

From what I gather is that .25 micro's is all around a perfect paste for stropping straights.

This is a very interesting subject. This is the first thread on this site that I've seen on the subject of razor strops. I've been wanting to start shaving with a straight for a while, and have been very interested in making strops. I've been shaving with old Gillete safety razors for a few years now. I've been lurking on "Badger and Blade", and "Straight Razor Place" for a bit. Are any of you members on either of those sites?

"Are you doing any king of surfacing, or grain correction (sanding, boneing, carding, combing ext) to the leather?"

Chef, when you talk about "grain correction," specifically sanding on the grain side, what grit of sandpaper are you using? I would imaging it would have to be very fine. Also the other methods are unknown to me. Are any of them similar to slicking with a glass slicker?

In regards to horsehide for a hanging straight razor strop, I remember reading somewhere that soft rolled is better than hard rolled. What are your opinions on this?

Have any of you used bridle leather? I would imagine it's draw being lighter than latigo, and heavier than horsehide.

Paul

[Valleee]

This is an old thread, but I'm wondering what grid for diamond paste works best for stropping?

[Chef niloc]

This is an old thread, but I'm wondering what grid for diamond paste works best for stropping?

This would depend on what you are stropping. General stropping for every day knives I'd go with anything from a 3-7 micron. 7 micron is bout 2800 grit, this would remove burs and "fix up" a edge pretty quickly. I might get flamed for suggesting such a course compound but if you think about it not many people take their knives 2 a 3000 grit stone. If the knifes you strop are the use a finer grit/ micron. I use kitchen knives the most (Hence Chef in the title of my name) And I keep them scary sharp, taking them to at least a 8000 stone if not 50,000+, After trying many (all?) different mesh/ micron sizes I found that I like the 3 micron (8000 grit) the most. However I do know from experience that most users like there diamond compound in the 0-.05 range (60,000-100,000 grit). While I can see this fine a compound being useful to finish a freshly sharpened blade if you don't have stones that go over 10k in grit size. I don't see it of much use for edge maintenance, Let's face it by the time you refresh your edge with your strop your 50,000+ micro bevel is long gone. So unless where talking about strops for straight razors I'd say somewhere between 3 to 7 micron would be best.

[Valleee]

thank you very much for clarifying this for me :D