DIY leather strop

Someone threw away this old weightlifter belt... and I was in need for a strop.



I cut it apart and got 2 strips (front side / back side) of 4mm leather which I sanded down to remove the print and the patina.



The wood lath is from a slatted frame, these are slightly bent inwards. Heard this would be better than with a straight strop.



The overall size of the strop is 6.5cm x 55cm, the leather strip is 38cm.
Btw: The coat rack it's hanging from is also from the same slatted frame I got from the bulk garbage.

Excellent idea & project!
I've seen leather lifting belts all over garage sales

Looks good!

Very nice !!!

Ingenious!

Russian leather. I like it. Nice shot of the two razors with red dots to distinguish one from the other as well.

Very nice!

Good work. I love to see anything practically re-purposed! Especially if you can shave with it. LOL

if this works im going to have to hit up some garage sales let us know how it works

It seems to work, but I'm a total beginner at honing and stropping (so far I'm using a shavette)
My honing sucks and this is my very first strop, so don't expect me anything useful to say.

Extrawurst said:

It seems to work, but I'm a total beginner at honing and stropping (so far I'm using a shavette)
My honing sucks and this is my very first strop, so don't expect me anything useful to say.

Click to expand...

i was just looking into if this would be a useful alternative for an actual strop but good to hear that its working so far

After some weeks of usage I have to admit it didn't work too well. I thought a very broad leather strip would be a good thing, but as it turned out, it isn't.
But I am learning and so I made another one which is only 50mm (about 2 inches). This time I added handles on both sides, so I can use it both ways if I want to. This one works much better.



I still have enough leather left, so there will also be a hanging strop. That's the work in progress on the top.

Also finished the hanging strop. The print is still visible, but has no effect on stropping and it doesn't disturb me.
The handle is made from 2 pieces of oak parquet so I didn't dye it like the slat, just treated it with linseed oil. Screws are double-sided.
Stropping works fine but I haven't shaved yet.

Verdict?

I haven't seen and touched too many other strops yet (only 2 so far), but the leather quality seems to be right. I am only doing this for few months now, but stropping and shaving works good now from my point of view. Much better than the €15 strop I bought which was folded (!) in the middle.
At the moment, I prefer the hanging strop. The wooden handle works great.

P.S. I'm also no expert in weight lifting, but different belts might come in different leather qualities. Just in case.

Good to know! Thanks!