groove in strop

[Robert Cahill]

This may not be new to some but a first for me. At the carving club a member showed me a leather strop he had made using a belt. On his he had put a groove with his v tool about 1/4" in so he could sharpen his v tools with different grits. It was a rectangle about 10 inches long with leather on 4 sides. I had never seen the v on the home made strops before so thought there may be others that may be interested.

[Paul_Guraedy]

A good idea Robert. I may try that for sharpening the outside of the V's. When I make my strops I use a piece of leather with a strait edge and let this overhang the board. It makes a great piece for stropping the inside of the V's.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Great idea Robert, thanks for sharing.

Dave

[davidinsarasota]

I've tried this a couple times, but have never had any success. My V tools do not track well in leather.

[SeaLeveler]

Cool idea there.Tony

[Mark Dellinger]

This is what I use. I got the idea from Roy Underhill from the "WoodWrights Shoppe" while watching public television. It is made of 1/4" thick leather and is approximately 7"x10". The left side is for my micro tools and the right is for my palm tools. I simply made a cut with the tool as if cutting through wood to create the groove for each type of tool, this is used for stropping the outside edge of the tools. For the inside of the tools I used a V tool and made two cuts at the exact width of the tool for the gouges, then took my knife and rounded off the edge to contour the inside shape of the gouge. For the V tool I simply made the two cuts side by side and the cuts simply form the inner side of the V tool.
This works well for me. I also have one that is about 3" wide that just has my most popular sizes on, this one is for traveling it fits nicely into a small tool bag.,


Hope this make sense and is useful.

Safe Carving and God Bless,

Mark

[Robert Cahill]

Mark,
I like that I have done the same in basswood from a WCI article by Irish. I have trouble finding leather of any size is there a mail order establishment to purchase it

[Mark Dellinger]

Robert,
I would think that a saddle maker or boot cobbler would have something like this. I have seen the leather in farm stores in the saddle areas as well. I will look around and see what I can find. My brother gave me this piece.

Mark

[gtech]

Good idea.

I use V cuts in basswood and never thought of using leather for V cuts.

I buy my leather from a Tandy retailer and can choose the size and thickness of the leather I want.

Gilles

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Originally Posted by Robert Cahill

Mark,
I like that I have done the same in basswood from a WCI article by Irish. I have trouble finding leather of any size is there a mail order establishment to purchase it

Bob, try Tandy Leather Factory - Choose Your Country

Dave