leather stropping

[ToddW]

I ordered 2 of these to sharpen my tools

https://www.amazon.com/AMAZSHARK-Leather-Strop/dp/B07X2RKD5R?ref_=ast_sto_dp

1 of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XRRXRWQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

1 of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CGM89I0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

just realized I am a bit confused.. I was going to contact cement them to a board but after watching youtube videos. some people use the shiny side and some people use the rough side.  should I leave it loose to be able to use both sides or should I glue it to a board/paddle for ease of use.  Not sure what side of the leather (or both) I should be using to sharpen my tools.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Frodo]

I used to do that.  Now,  I just grab a bit of scrap rub some rouge on it and strop my blade

I have used both sides and can not come to a conclusion that one is better than the other

 

[Klara]

I've glued the flesh (rough) side to the wood and rubbed the honing compound to the hair side (smooth). I have a grey strop and a green one (Dialux as well) but mostly use the green. 

[zuludog]

I've made three or four strops by gluing leather to pieces of wood, with contact adhesive or PVA woodworking adhesive, they both do the job. They all had the grain side glued to the wood, with the flesh side exposed. Flesh side up seems to work well enough, and after a while it becomes polished anyway. I suspect the grain side up will give you a finer polish, but after the flesh side develops its polish I don't think there will be much in it

I haven't used those stropping compounds, so perhaps others can comment. I use Veritas green chromium dioxide compound

On a couple of the strops I treated the leather with a smear of leather grease, just once, before rubbing with the compound and it seems to make the compound stick a bit better  

Obviously there are variations, just Search YouTube, but the proof of the pudding.......... Perhaps more important is to strop frequently

Strop your blades, but if you Search YT there are videos on using the edge of the leather to sharpen edge bevelers; you can make a purpose made sharpening board for that

[mike02130]

You'd be better off ordering some horse butt strips and make your own; a crap load.  I've always used contact cement on a piece of nice plywood or MDF.  Horse has more silicates than cow leather and is thicker and denser.  The Dialux is a good brand.  I use the green for carbon blades and white for harder steels like D2.  The flesh side of horse gets the compound, the grain side gets nothing.  There is excellent information at bladeforums.com.  I only use leather for pocket knives.  For my leather and woodworking tools I use a piece of MDF.

[MtlBiker]

I'm about to make some strops, but I don't recall ever having seen one in real life (unless as a kid, I saw a barber sharpening something)...  I have some pieces of veg tan leather and some that are chrome tanned.  Would either work equally well?  I'm talking about using the flesh side for sharpening and gluing the other side to plywood.  I've also ordered some green Veritas Honing Compound.

Thanks.

[Klara]

I used chrome tanned because I didn't want to "waste" veg tanned fot the purpose and it works fine. No idea whether veg tanned would work even better. But the way I see it, all that's needed is a surface for the honing compound to stick to....

[chuck123wapati]

 

I use a simple piece of 2000 grit sandpaper spray glued on my pounding stone to keep up the edge. No flex no mess and much easier and cheaper.

To soft and the flex of the leather will round off your edge.

Use the hardest leather you can find if you want to make one i hear horse hide fits the bill best. 

[MtlBiker]

52 minutes ago, Klara said:

I used chrome tanned because I didn't want to "waste" veg tanned fot the purpose and it works fine. No idea whether veg tanned would work even better. But the way I see it, all that's needed is a surface for the honing compound to stick to....

Funny, but that's what I was thinking also... that I didn't want to waste "good" leather.  Merci beaucoup!

 

[MtlBiker]

38 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

 

I use a simple piece of 2000 grit sandpaper spray glued on my pounding stone to keep up the edge. No flex no mess and much easier and cheaper.

To soft and the flex of the leather will round off your edge.

Use the hardest leather you can find if you want to make one i hear horse hide fits the bill best. 

Interesting.  So you don't use a strop at all?  Just the 2000 grit sandpaper?

In terms of leather hardness, I really don't know what I have.  I've got some veg tan and some remnants I bought of chrome tan.  The chrome tan feels much softer than the veg tan, much more flexible/pliable.  The veg tan is stiff.  Is hardness of leather something else?  As a novice, I really don't know.  But I'd want to use a piece of something I already have instead of buying leather specifically for making a strop.  Anyway, I guess I'll make something, maybe one of each, and see if I can learn to use it properly.  At this point of my inexperience I probably wouldn't be able to tell which is better.  In another thread here about round knives, etc. I was told multiple times that I'd have to strop the heck out of my new round knife and that when the knife arrives it wouldn't be sharp enough.  But I'll pick up some 2000 grit sandpaper too... here at work the finest we use is 400.

Thank you for your comments.