Hand American Split Leather Strop 11" x 3". The split leather magnetic strop pad is kind of a cross between felt and leather. It has a gritty texture that is great from stropping and grabs and removes burrs with ease. Here is Keith's description of his product. Reprinted here with his permission.
Split leather as a honing surface.
Bark tanned bovine can be very thick, For most typical uses the method used to reduce hide thickness is referred to as ‘splitting’. Splitting is usually done with the intention of leaving the grain or epidermis intact.
The equipment used to to split the hide is designed so that the material is fed and guided horizontally through a series of rollers and knives with the objective of literally slicing the hide in order to achieve a desired top grain thickness.
The end result is a full/top grain leather in the desired thickness and a non grain ‘split or waste side’. The top grain can be further processed and used for any number of things, Waste/split leather is often used to create suede though it has other uses. When splitting leather to be used for honing purposes the objective is a bit different. The three layers of skin common in mammals is the subcutaneous layer, the dermis, and the epidermis.
What we’re looking for is to reveal the dermal papillae which are tiny finger like
projections that connect the dermis to the epidermis.
Bark tanning makes these projections extremely hard in their own right and while they will affect blade steel are also perfect for suspending dry, paste, and water based compounds.
There are two ways of exposing the dermal papillae. Splitting off approximately 1 mm from the grain side will usually reveal the projections and leave a thicker leather depending on what thickness you started with. You can also split from the flesh side removing most of the subcutaneous layer until you reach the dermal papillae. Of course this will leave you with a thin leather.
This is a great strop when combined with diamond spray,no give to it and the prickly leather produces a nice bitey edge.
However,this strop takes some breaking in before it is usable. The bare surface has lots of prickly protrusions that needed to be softened up by rubbing the diamond spray directly into the leather. I recommend putting on some latex gloves and using your fingers to rub the spray in.
Once you break it in,you’re in for a treat.
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By: Jaime Grant
Squamish BC
My first experience with a strop. Very easy to get the knives to razor sharp on this. That is sharp enough to shave with.
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By: Sebastian
Sydney
I’ve recently discovered (with the aid of a 30X illuminated magnifying loupe),that pressing down a fair bit harder makes this so much more efficient at removing microscopic burrs from the edge,bringing about an exreme improvement in cutting performance. I use this with 1.0-micron diamond spray which I prefer because it is faster and leaves a ’toothier’ final edge. Just imagine your knife edge being lapped with a leather ’cat’s tongue’ that has been supercharged with diamond spray. What a brilliant idea!
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By: Mike
Iowa
Nice,brings a razor (I mean razor) sharp edge...
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By: Aaron
Akron,OH
Kind of an interesting strop. Has a rough feel to it,but when you partner it with a compound,(.1 compound I use) I get very good results. And the usual great service from Mark.
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