FYI: Leather for strop sharpening

Just to let you all know, for those that sharpen their own chisels and plane cutters, there is a seller with the best leather there is for this purpose which is "horse butt" (as I have read), on ebay and on with their own website. I ordered one for my DP wheel (almost done making that) and will use another piece for hand stropping. Supposedly this is very thin leather (5/64 to 5.5/64) that is extremely tough, these pieces are "vegetable tanned" (veggy oil?). It is a nice large whole piece, not diced-up. He emailed me back in reply and said they have thousands of whole ones. I read in a forum that if used correctly one piece will last a lifetime.

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then "side leathers" and scroll down to "North of Cordovan" and you'll see it. I think it would better not to glue it to a piece of wood when you can flip it over and have two qualities of grain.

Alex

Reply to
AAvK
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AAvK notes:

Not oil. Vegetable tannins. Actually the only way leather is 'tanned' which is the process of changing it from raw skin to leather.

Charlie Self "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine

Reply to
Charlie Self

Weeell, maybe not. One of the first things we were advised about the locals up in Alaska was to avoid purchase of mukluks/parkas from them which employed an animal acid - urine- to preserve them.

Those kinds of things keep you warm outside at -30, but can drive you into the cold again if you let them thaw indoors.

Reply to
George

Guess you all never heard about using brains to tan buckskin. For example

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"every animal has just enough brains to tan its own hide"

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Reply to
Del Cecchi

Del Cecchi responds:

Not tanning. Curing. Without tannins, you aren't tanning, regardless of what it is called, but there are numerous other ways to cure skins and turn them into leather. Over the years, several of them have come to be called tanning, but...

Ah. I see. Smoke the hides first. Or use wood ash.

Vegetable tanning.

Charlie Self "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine

Reply to
Charlie Self

I think I've pissed in every pair of my walking boots. How else do you wear them in properly ?

Not to mention the number of woven fabrics traditionally using urine (or "lant") in their processing.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

My dad taught me to face downwind....

Reply to
George

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