If you’ve ever wondered how to make a knife sharp enough to shave with, here’s the answer: you need to strop it. You can make a DIY Leather Strop Compound. Using a wet/oil stone will only take the process so far, as would a honing steel.
This instructable will show you how to make and use a leather strop out of conventional household items: an old leather belt and toothpaste.
DIY Leather Strop Compound: Preparation
The first step of the diy leather strop compound is preparation. Consider these factors when cutting the belt: Paper cutters are great for cutting through leather and make nice cuts. If you are using a utility knife slowly, you can also get good results. If you have a scrap piece of softwood (not balsa), cut it so that it has about 1 cm margin (it’s up to you).
Using an index card to find the center is faster than measuring if you need to cut the piece in half. Make sure the edges are blanted. You can use one’s leg or a couch cushion to rest a piece of sandpaper on, and then move the wood across it. Sandpaper of 80 grit was used.
DIY Leather Strop Compound Tips: Make The Strop
The next step of diy leather strop compound is to make the strop/ Leather needs to be glued as follows: The glue of your choice should be used. E6000 glue was designed to work with wood and leather, so you can use it. It was easier to use only one piece of glue and then attach the other to it in order to ensure even application of the glue. The two pieces were squished together and then separated.
Immediately after glue has been applied, apply even pressure to the strop. On a flat paper cutting board, flip the strop over and press down. E6000 is an evaporative adhesive, which means it dries by evaporating. It adheres to itself due to its volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The process was sped up slightly with a fan. I only dried this particular glue for 30 minutes before proceeding to the next step, even though it takes 48 hours to completely dry.
To keep the surface clean, tape some blue painter’s tape over the top of the strop. It was all over the place to apply paste. What is the purpose of paste wax? You can dry it like E6000, it is inexpensive, and it preserves leather. We waited 30 minutes before moving on to the next step.
When applying the paste wax, consider reusing remnants of an old reusable bag or old socks, so that you don’t have to keep using paper towels or napkins. Inside the container containing the paste wax, keep a small cloth. Only the leather strop needs to be brushed with whitening toothpaste for this instructable to be complete. A little automotive buffing compound happened to be in my stash, so I made two strops. You are welcome to use it if you have it.
Why should I use toothpaste? Strops are made from toothpaste because it has a small amount of abrasiveness. Even better is whitened toothpaste, which is more abrasive. Put a thin layer of paint on first. Adding another layer after the first has dried is a good idea.
Wax the strop after it has been cleaned, applied paste wax over toothpaste to approximate the stropping compound that is normally bound in wax. When applying paste wax, use your finger / a glove. The wax paste will be kept clean by following this procedure. When working with different types of compound, don’t use the same finger. Now move to the next step of diy leather strop compound.
DIY Leather Strop Compound Tips: Sharpening Process
You should apply soap. What is the reason? Here is how I would use a safety razor with double-edges. Excellent! Knives can be sharpened with this strop. I’d use this knife only in an emergency. Is there a way to sharpen things more effectively?
Cutting paper is a good exercise. Keeping the blade moving back and forth should make it simple. A straight cut should only be slightly more difficult than a backward cut. Due to an orange tree in my yard that yields too many oranges, my wife and I used oranges for testing. You should use tomatoes instead.
Cutting food (in this case) is done with a knife. To check if it works, slice some food thinly to see if it’s easy to cut. It means that the blade is sharp and that it is also even if it is able to create thin, even slices. In this case, the blade is uneven if it veers to one side. If the blade must be pushed too hard or must be moved back and forth, then it is still dull. The sharpened knife I used did not cause me these problems.
Easy right? Or if you don’t have time or the motivation to make a DIY leather strop compound you can simply buy it.
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