Mother of all knife strops

[cavey]

Finally got around to making my new knife sharpening strops (strop boards) with a few improvements over the last ones. I can pull large kitchen knives across these with full reach pulls. 4" by about 24"'s of dual sided smooth and suede leather.. I put jeweler's rouge on one side of each and step through suede side to smooth sides as I put the final sharpening steps to the knives, works really good. Back paddles to allow for bracing against the undersides of my forearms to steady the board/motion. Their primarily for my grafting knives. Getting itchy to do some grafting this spring.
Their big - so it will prove interesting.

Something different to post anyways.

 

[Bill]

Wow. Those things brought back some memories. I used to use my leather belt as a kid to finish a knife. But my grandfather was a barber. He had those things hanging from his barber chair.

 

[Tree Spud]

Nice! Any pictures showing how you made them?

 

[Mortenson]

Those are impressive. I've just been using my jeans. Probably helps explain my high failure rate!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Nice Cavey!! Are they glued down to those boards?? I'm assuming they're tacked on the other side of the boards. Wondering about the leather stretching.

 

[cavey]

They are pretty simple, 36 or 38"ish something long 4 1/2 oak boards ripped down to 4 inches wide. Scroll sawed out a grip area rounded over with a hand file and pad sanded. With about 48" of thick 10 oz vegetable tanned tanned leather (one board with the smooth side up on both sides (as it simply wraps over the bull nosed end) and one board with the suede side up) 2 part epoxy glued and clamped. I lightly scratched up the wood surface to be glued under the leather. I just stained and sealed it to make it look better and might added braided leather or something to the hand grips - might.
I screwed up on my first two boards I clamped them down utilizing two narrow strips as clamp boards (the excess ripped wood from the boards) down each side and the glue pushed to the center so I had a slight hump to the center of each side. Even though it was just a little rise I noticed it while sharpening and it bothered me.

I went a little over the top with these but after sharpening my kitchen knives on the old boards I figured this would work much better. The old boards just had handles and they were shorter 15 inches of leather to a side so that wasn't a big deal to hold and I often just rested the end on a table or what ever. These are way longer so I just kept the back paddle area on and it works really well as a bit of a brace against the downward force of lightly pulling the edge up - sort of teeter totters the movement up into your arm as a brace.
I do not have construction pics but these some it from some different angles. Length was determined by trying to figure out what would be the longest distance I could comfortably pull the knife up to near my grip - I had 15" leather sides and knew I could go a lot more. The strops just help to take the edge to the next level and I have found the sharper the knife the better my grafting success was. A friend uses something similar to sharpen his wood working tools .. lots of uses. I think a little thicker board would feel a bit meatier but would add weight.

 

[cavey]

These are my old boards - Ive posted before on the stops. You can kind of see on the board to the right where the center is a bit grayed up from the metal off the knives. It is just in the center where the leather humps up ever so slightly so my blades where not getting even coverage as I buffed them. had I not screwed up clamping down the leather I would never have made these new ones. These were more than good enough and wide enough. I just figured if i was going to make new ones to do a better job and go a bit bigger. I might end up hating them who knows I will tell you more once I get to using them.

 

[cavey]

Those are impressive. I've just been using my jeans. Probably helps explain my high failure rate!

Nothing wrong with using Denim. Almost anything can be used and works. Interesting little article below: The knife forums are even wilder for interesting info than this place at times. Those guys get into there stuff and take stuff to the extremes.

https://www.knifeplanet.net/leather-fabric-unloaded-strops-under-microscope/

 

[Bowsnbucks]

More than I need, but a custom knife maker I know uses a cloth wheel on a bench grinder along with chrome rouge. Puts a mirror finish on the blade.

I like those strops, Cavey!! Nice job.