Good Quality DIY strop leather..?

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I'm starting to realise how important stropping is. Once I've stopped nicking my first strop - a cheap £10 option from Amazon - I'd like to upgrade.

Does anyone have any experience with English bridle leather? Horse butt would be nice but bridle looks like the best option I can find in terms of stropping performance.

I can get four feet of 9oz (~3.6mm) 2" (50mm) bridle butt for about £15. Off cuts are even cheaper although the quality could be variable.
 
Strops from Amazon are Usual Crud..Here is a Decent Wee Strop.. :rolleyes:
Or..I Had One of these..Good Value for the Dollar.. :cool:

Billy
 
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Thanks :) Good to know about.

At the moment I'm thinking if I put all the money into a nice piece of leather I can get a high quality strop with a good length at a fraction of the price. It could be a lot of work though: rounding the edges, boning (?) and so on. We'll see.

My current strop is 2" and so far I really like this width. Not sure I really trust a piece of leather to be perfectly flat so I'm a bit suspicious of wide strops. With a narrow width and some X-pattern I guess it doesn't matter so much.
 
Thanks James :) I think I'd like to try something a little longer.

Can't seem to find any horse butt but these two look promising:

https://www.artisanleather.co.uk/razor-strop-leather-strip-50mm-2-inches-wide.html

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-LONG-BLACK-3-4-3-8mm-THICK-BRIDLE-BUTT-LEATHER-STRAP-VEG-TAN-VARIOUS-WIDTH/200954815153?hash=item2ec9d722b1:g:DZsAAMXQO21Rnlsu

The first sounds like it might have specifically been prepared for stropping and is ready to use after adding the fittings. The second is double the length so I'd have enough to make more than one. Possibly there could be more work to do casing/boning, rounding the edges.
 
Nice work :) I hadn't figured out how to finish the ends but this gives me some good ideas. I guess the key point is to try to spread the load evenly to keep the leather flat.
 
The veg tanned horse is a very fast strop. Almost like ice. Oil tanned horse is like butter. Just a bit more draw, but feels great. The English bridle has a tad more draw to it. I prefer the faster strops, especially for heavier grinds. I have a Latigo that is a medium to heavy draw that doesn't see much action...
 
I eventually bought the 3" wide piece of leather from Artisan Leather Co (link above). It looks good, as far as I can tell. 4mm thick so it's a solid lump of leather. There's some real draw; I'd guess light to medium. It feels like its doing something compared to my first budget strop which didn't feel like it was engaging with the blade at all.

Thanks everyone for all the advice :)
 
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