How to Make a Strop | Paul Sellers

the simple finale when you come to sharpen your chisels your edge tools is to use a strop and I want to show you the strop that I've used for the past 50 years they don't last that long 3-4 years they get yards you have to replace the leather but I'm going to show you how I make mine because it's very quick very simple and they're great for getting that edge you can't really get any other way just using hand methods I've got a piece of scrap leather here and a piece of scrap plywood you could use plywood you could use solid wood MDF just about anything you want I'm using plywood it clumps well in the vise and it's nice and rigid so I've got square and it's three inches wide and I'm going to make mine ten inches long I don't like them longer and I don't like them shorter you'll have to decide for yourself three inches is great four inches is too wide so I'm going to go with my preference of three by ten I'm going to crosscut this tool and so I want crisp edges underneath here so that the leather is totally supported and if I have that then I just use double-sided tape what we sometimes call mounting tape or mount tape cut it's a length what you don't want is little bits of wood like these little shavings underneath between the leather and the surface of your wood [Music] so the knife all going all the way around as usual meant that this didn't prey on this edge a little bit of planing and we're ready to mount this leather to the plywood break the edges what I'm going to do instead of cutting directly onto my workbench so I'm going to put the scrout on the scrap of plywood underneath here sharp knife now I'm gonna leave my piece of leather oversized I don't need to cut it too and so I'm cutting here and it's because it's much easier because you're going to stretch this leather onto the base go ahead and clamp it in the vise and I've got the double-sided tape this isn't a padded tape we don't want the padded take what we want is the thin tape so I'm just using super thinness no thicker than sellotape or seller's tape sellotape overhang you don't have to cut it to length either press it on firmly side by side try not to leave any gaps the this I guarantee this will stay stuck as well so nice and firm I'm going to cut this width one off now like that let the rest I'm just going to leave as up as they are and this is ready to receive the leather almost there we go make sure there's no substantial bits on the leather because it will Telegraph through the surface pull it as tight as you can press it in the middle and then pull it out to the outer edge and then pull this one out to the outer edge and stretch it because it's going to stretch when you put your pressure on the blade that's going to go on that that is how you make a strop so I'm gonna just cut my leather off now good sharp knife nothing to it no need to buy one really because a scrap of wood and a scrap of leather some old handbag or an old jacket piece of upholestry hide will work there we have a great strop nothing else to do to that and it's ready for use already straight away we can use this we are gonna sharpen the power chisel say we've just ground the chisel we've honed it on the stones this is just a buffing compound the use for a stainless steel so find any buffing powder compound this is suspended in a wax pull out on the surface heal down of your hand there the bevel down and just pull but don't push you don't want to push that's what gouge is it about 30 times and that's how you use the shot you've got a good sharp edge the reverse side of the strop can also be used now because we generally don't polish this side on the leather because the leather isn't sufficiently hard so we can you can use the buffing compound on the reverse side and this is the side you might use just to polish out the face periodically black is the steel and I've got the back done I've got that bevel done and I'm ready for chiseling work planing work anything that has an edge tool [Music]

Channel: Paul Sellers

Views: 128,530

Rating: 4.9691467 out of 5

Keywords: woodworking, hand tools, paul sellers, DIY, Sharpening, wood, tools, garage workshop, workshop, how to, lesson, tutorial

Id: YdCdGpz4YzA

Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Tue May 22 2018