Hi, I'm new to straights and have never actually held a strop in my hand... yet. Just wondering if it would be feasible to adapt my Weider leather weight training belt into a workable razor strop. Is the leather completely different? It has a buckle at one end and I think that's what gave me the idea, but I've only ever seen clips on youtube etc, so I've no idea and don't want to damage my straight before I've even started shaving with it. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any advice.
Weight training belt > strop
- Thread starter sam o'reilly
- Start date
A quick answer. Hopefully, others who know more will reply as well.
I have used strops made from belt blanks bought at hobby stores, flat square pieces of leather from leather departments, and so on. It seems to me that if the leather is smooth, and not bumpy, it will work.
Regularly, I rub my strops with oil and press firmly with the flat side of a coffee cup to ensure they stay flat.
The above comments are really utilitarian level comments. Just about any smooth, semi-finished leather will work as a strop. That being said, the finishes on some of the upper end strops, as well as many of the conversations here, seem to indicate to me that the performance of these strops is better than the utilitarian minimum to successfully strop nature of my comments.
I have used strops made from belt blanks bought at hobby stores, flat square pieces of leather from leather departments, and so on. It seems to me that if the leather is smooth, and not bumpy, it will work.
Regularly, I rub my strops with oil and press firmly with the flat side of a coffee cup to ensure they stay flat.
The above comments are really utilitarian level comments. Just about any smooth, semi-finished leather will work as a strop. That being said, the finishes on some of the upper end strops, as well as many of the conversations here, seem to indicate to me that the performance of these strops is better than the utilitarian minimum to successfully strop nature of my comments.
I had an old 6" altus leather belt and tried stropping on it a few times. It was too wide to hold taut and wobbled. Plus hard and thick. Besides although old it was still a good belt and gave it to a friend at the gym. Instead i built my own 3" strop from a Tandy leather blank belt strip. $30 gets you 3"x50" 8-9oz texan leather. 3" wide strops typically cost $80 up. Link to my diy strop.
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=151506
http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php?t=151506
- Thread starter
- #4
Hi, thanks for the feedback. Some very useful tips there, and your strops look great. If I was that handy I'd be making and selling them and using the cash to buy the best soaps and brushes etc known to mankind.
