Leather Strop

by Jordy Montes in Workshop > Knives

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Leather Strop

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I chose this project due to its simplicity and easy difficulty level. A leather strop is used to hone a blade after the use of a sharpening stone. The leather allows curves of a knife to be sharpened easily. You can use some sort of honing compound or I heard you can use whitening toothpaste (which I'll be trying because that's what I have)

Materials

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You will need:
A piece of leather preferably a long piece like a belt.
A block of wood I'm using a scrap wooden block I already had
Some sort of adhesive like epoxy but I didn't have any so I used Liquid Nails
A knife to hone
Sanding Paper I only have 220 grit sand paper

Wooden Block Prep

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I just sanded the block just so it's soft and smooth. You could probably add a stain or oil to make it look nice. I prefer mine not to be so glamorous since it is my first one.

Glueing Down the Belt

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I glued down the leather belt in the middle which was a mistake. If the wooden block is bigger than the leather glue down near the edge. The wood will block the knife from sharpening at the bottom near the handle. Anyways I put some weight on top and waited for half an hour.

Testing the Strop

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As my knife I'm using a Morakniv Companion. I applied the whitening toothpaste to the belt and used the same strokes you would use on a sharpening stone.

Conclusion

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Your knife should be sharp now. Just wash off the toothpaste with water and you're good to go. This was fun and I'll be making another project soon. I hope my first instructable wasn't so bad.