[Woodartist]

Well, I now have the basswood, will order knives and now have a question about stropes....creeping along Years ago we just used leather but I see there are different types/styles of stropes out there. Is there a "suggested" strope and compound to use?? I currently use a piece of leather with mineral oil for my gouges......
Thanks,

[EdO]

If it works for you, be happy. You might want to try a little compound of some sort (there's a thousand kinds) to maybe speed up the process. There are many ways of accomplishing the same thing.

[Woodartist]

I use a green and then red compund for the gouges......is that OK, or are there better compunds out there ????

[Thomp]

there is so many commericaily available polishing compounds tripo;i or red compound seams to be the favorite, from what ive read,
but sicne i found flexcut gold compound i wont be using anything else,

there is wax bars and powders available all over the web, at carving sites,
flexcut was about 7 bucks plus s&h,..

[Woodartist]

I did see the gold compound, but don't know what it is. What about the strops??? Any prefered ones????? What material is used to make them??

[Thomp]

most of mine are made from sweetgum wood, becuse i had it on hand but popular is about the same hardness of wood, with thin pigskin contact cemented rough side out,

i like the thinner leathers becuse they dont have as much thickness that can compress and effect the roundover of edges over time ...

you can shape the edge of the wood on the strop to accomidate a "v" inside of v tools or rounded to fit or gouges if you think ahead while making them...

or you could go one step farther and glue some wet/dry 600/1000 on 2 sides of a squair stick and pigskin on the other sides think its called a slick'um
and all would be handy for touch ups...

and you could use your gouges and v tools to cut into the wood to make the profile of each tool and use it like the flexcut palm tool hone with a little compound on it.

[AlArchie]

Bill the advice you have gotten so far is pretty well straight on. I've made several strops, but my favorite is made from a piece of 3/8"thick oak, 2" wide and about a foot long. I've glued on a piece of hard cowhide (saddle leather) that is about 1/4" thick with the rough side out. thin leather works well, but I like this thick stiff stuff....it doesn't roll the edge at all. I'll post a pic when I get a chance.

The material you use for abrasives can vary a lot. All of it pretty much does the same thing, polishes the bevel and removes the burr edge. The three grades of abrasive most readilly available at the hardware stores ar the small bars. Some come in sets of the three different grades and some you can buy individually.

White Bar.......the coursest of the three, but still plenty fine to put a great edge on your tools.

Brown Bar......Commonly known as Tripoli is the next finer grade.

Red Bar........Jewelers Rouge, is the finiest generally available, and will put the finest polish on your steel.

If you'd like I can get the micron size of these abrasives for you, but that is really irrelevant. Any and all of them are quite good enough to strop your blades on. I like the red jewelers' rouge myself, but that is strictly a matter of preference.

There are also several brands of abrasive marketed by carvers' supply that come indifferent colors, or you can find these same bars from commercial abrasive suppliers. All of these that I've looked at have an abrasive micron size somewhere between the red and white......so, take your pick, they will ALL work!

I do think that the bars sold for carvers have a softer carrier wax, so that makes them easier to apply. I found that the jewelers' rouge from Santa Fe Jewelers Supply has the softest carrier that I've seen. I store it in zip locks to keep it soft.

Al

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I have made strops out of 1/2 birch plywood strips, pine, whatever I can get out of my scrap bin lol....I also use mostly the green chromium oxide and have some of the yellow flexcut....I can't honestly tell the difference! I have some soft leather (would prefer some pigskin if I knew where to get it!) Iwrap it all the way around the stick so I can use the corners for gouges etc....and I have used elmers carpenters glue on all of them and none have come loose. just what I have done....many other ways I am sure.

[Woodartist]

OK, great info guys and appreciate it...just what I was looking for. Kind of along the lines of what I know and do, just wasn't sure if there was a new space age approach to things By your designs I will have to make a new strop to accomodate the knives and gouges. I have a lot of cow leather that I can select from, but will have to poke around for some harder wood.

Thanks !!!

[brian bailey]

Here is a picture of what I use for strops.

A piece of basswood, 1/8" thick MFD board, and various dowels for honing the inside bevels.

I really like how the 1/8" mfd works, nice firm surface to hone on.

Flexcut gold for compound.

Don't care much for leather, just my opinion.