Maybe it escapes only me: strop on wood block cost

[Highland Pairos]

I was at a Woodcraft today trying to decide how to spend the giftcard I got for Xmas (Yea Me!). I was looking at items for final honing of my various blades. The strops that they sold were around $30 and the honing paste was $2 something. Now I have to tell you, but to my untrained eye, those strops looked a lot like a block of wood with a piece of leather glued to them. Now, if that is the case, then it strikes me that I can probably glue a piece of belt blank or a piece of a leather coat that got ripped recently to a piece of wood and get the same effect. Am I missing something? Is there something special about the leather that I need to account for? Maybe its the wood. Is it some exotic Honduran stropwood?

Hope everyone's Christmas was good.

SteveP.

[George]

Can only tell you that a piece of belt leather and compound has been putting a great edge on my stuff for about fifteen years. Belt was from an old jackshaft, so the leather's full quarter inch. Allows me some contouring.

On the subject of wood, it's often used as a base for stropping or honing compound.

[Mark & Juanita]

I've thought the same thing when looking at those strops. Seems a bit spendy for a piece of leather glued to a shaped piece of wood. I've saved my old leather apron for that very purpose. Now, the honing paste may be worth the price.

Yep.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[brianlanning]

I bet certain types of toothpaste work perfectly... and will whiten your chisels and plane irons while making them minty fresh.

brian

[Morris Dovey]

An aircraft mechanic buddy shaved part of a bar of grinding compound into a can with his pocket knife and added mineral spirits. When the crumbles had dissolved, he dipped a rag into the mix and used it to polish a plane.

I liked the simplicity. Went to my shop and attacked a white bar with an old SurForm plane blade and added mineral spirits - saved the mix in a plastic bottle for sharpening. It works well.

BTW, LV has a leather belt that fits my little 1"x42" belt sander. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[RonB]

OK - Time for the old fellows to weigh in. One of my earliest memories of barber shops probably goes back 56 years or more. I remember sitting in the chair watching the barber at the next chair sharpening a straight razor on a long leather strop. If you watch old westerns you will see the same thing. Long leather strops, hanging from the back of a barber chair or his bench were standard equipment for many years. I don't recall seeing one lately.

RonB

[Zz Yzx]

Anybody remember the old "Pepsident" commercials (c. late 1950's early

1960's):

"..... with zironium silicate! Put's PIZZAZZ in your smile!"

Zirconium silicate is zircon, a commercial abrasive around 8-9 on the Mohs hardness scale.

-Zz

[Lew Hodgett]

NO, and you probably won't, thanks to the lawyers.

When is the last time you saw a straight razor in a barber shop?

When is the last time you saw somebody get a shave with a straight razor?

Hot towels wrapped over your face with a little hole left for breathing.

Short deft strokes. Wipe the hot lather and cut whiskers from the blade, after each stroke, on a piece of paper resting on your shoulder as you lay almost prone in the barber chair.

That shot of aftershave when the shave was finished.

Saturday afternoon in the fall, the Ohio State football game on the radio, getting a shave for that hot Saturday night date.

Those were the days my friend.

If you could afford a barber shop shave and a Saturday night night date, it had been a good week.

Don't even find a straight razor being used for the final neck trim any more, just a funky little electric trimmer.

It's just not the same.

Was told it is a liability issue with the insurance companies.

Lew

[Mark & Juanita]

If so, one should begin wondering what those toothpastes are doing to one's teeth.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[dpb]

Saturday a week ago (I didn't make it in this week... :) )

Saturday week somebody else, I see myself every morning in the mirror (on the mornings I shave, anyway... :) ) ...

Barbers still use them here for the neck trim, too.

I suspect if they don't where you are it's either the local guys are just young and never learned the skill/art or your State has eliminated them for a perceived health issue. I really doubt the lawyers are to blame here (not that there aren't enough areas for which they do bear responsibility.. :( )

[Tom Watson]

When I was a boy I went to a barber who would give you a haircut - and a shave - if you were in need.

Next to his chair was a strip of leather, tanned and finished on one side and buckskin raw on the other.

When he got to the point of doing the sideburns and the blocking on the back of the neck - he would take a straight razor and strop it on the leather - then he'd carefully swipe the offending hairs away from his creation.

That's been a while ago. About the same time that I last saw a copy of Police Gazzette.

sigh...

(Norman Rockwell - what would you paint today)

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[Edwin Pawlowski]

My barber has been cutting and shaving for about 60 years but no longer uses the straight edge. Health issues and Aids stopped it. I'm not sure if it is a state mandate or insurance, but they have not used them for over 15 years now.

I'd ask him, but it seems as though I no longer need his services.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Sorry, it won't work. Strop need to be made professionally and you don't have the skills. Next thing you know, you'll be trying to make your own furniture and stuff.

[Upscale]

For approximately the past year, I'm in the same position where I've dispensed with the services of a barber. With the small amount of hair on top, for over a dozen years, I'd been having a barber trim it down to almost flush with the skin and they'd been charging me their standard $25 for ten minutes worth of work. It occurred to me about a year ago to spend $40 on an electric cutter for hair and I've been trimming it down myself ever since. It's convenient and doesn't cost me a cent anymore. Don't know why I didn't think of it years ago.

Only benefit I can think of being almost bald, that and I buy shampoo a lot less frequently. :)

[Robatoy]

something? Is there

Well, yes. The strop-grade leather is grain orientated along spinal lines. Those selected elk are raised on very narrow farms with a north/south direction. They shave the elk on a regular schedule in order to pre-condition the leather. Elk shavers are a dying breed. That is why stropping leather is seldom used any more. I thought everybody knew that.

[lwhaley]

Last July at the Minneapolis airport the guy shaved my head for $20. It is hard to find anymore though cause I have looked.

This barber agreed and said that he only knows a few and he should know. Turns out my head was being shave by the most prominent barber in the state. He not only owns the only barber shop at the airport but also the barber shop at the state capitol. also said that he is the head of the state licsensing for barbers.

So this guy is a rare barber and it has become hard to find a real barber shop that is equipped for a shave with the hot foam, hot towels, and the strraight razor. Most can only give you a buzz cut with the shears getting it as close as they can. the good ones will vaccuum your head after. With the bad ones you just have a lot of stubble till you shower.

So anyway last sumer finally decided to just keep it shaved til the weather turned. There are websites and forums for those who shave the head. Basically it just take some patience and practice.

[Tom Watson]

Elk shavers are a dying breed.

You got me. You finally got me speechless. I seen you do something with your mouth that I never thought to see done. It's amazing to me that I never seen nothing like this nowheres else on nobody's nothing...

(tony soprano)

I'm hanging with you for the irony...(tw)

Regards,

Tom Watson

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[WoodButcher]

Where can I find plans for making a strop? Is it best to use it hide side out or flesh side out? Is cow leather the best? How about horse, ox, pig, or mother in law?

Art

[Malcolm Hoar]

Oh deer, and I thought it was just the tale of an elk!

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I bought a Wahl trimmer a couple of years ago. A few passes every week or so keeps it in good condition.

Hair is over rated. I don't worry about wind messing anything up, I don't worry about a hat messing up my pompadour, I don't worry about hair in the face when swimming. I do, however, take precautions for sunburn.