You can use MANY things for a stropping surface. Eric Lofstrom prefers kangaroo leather since it "compresses" less than most other leathers. I did find a source, Maverick Leather in Bend, OR. I got the thin stuff. They do have some "tooling" Roo leather, which is thick, but I passed on that. Oh, many say that "vegetable tanned" is best. I have some made from saddle leather since my local shop had a bin of scraps for sale cheap. I have one poplar and one alder strop board with no leather on it, just compound. You can use plywood, or just about any flat surface, and I do put some compounds on them. There are a couple of sources for diamond particle pastes, DMT and Sharpening Supplies, and it is according to "microns". I did get some kitchen knives from Bernal Cutlery in San Francisco, and their strop is cork with "chromium oxide" which is green. Jeweler's Rouge, which is red, is supposed to be in the 30,000 grit range. There is a green material from Taylor Tools that is supposed to be 60,000 grit. The most interesting strop material I ever heard of was from a guy in Australia, ISharpen, who says kangaroo tail is the best. The place in Bend is "looking for it", but it has been about a year since I asked.... When he demonstrates how sharp his knives are, he is cutting through cigarette rolling papers. He doesn't put anything on that. Most interesting one I heard of was some one using balsa wood. I would have no problem understanding carving chisels on balsa since it would compress to match the shapes of your tools/gouges. Oh, another thing, the color of the stropping sticks does not indicate grit. I would think there would be "standards" for the materials, but nope. I did hear that the black stuff sold at the big box hardware stores is about 800 grit, and I do have some of that on some plywood. No clue as to what the yellow and green are, but they do pull off the burr.
robo hippy
robo hippy
