Thread: Sagging strop remedy

I have an idea for those who are having trouble with stroping. I took a thin piece of wood, about 1/4" or less and cut it to the same width and length of my strop. I then drilled a hole in one end and put the board under the leather and on top of the canvas of my strop. In other words between the two and used the strop. I did not glue it to anything. It just is held with the leather or canvas on top when using. This prevents sagging of the strop when stropping.

Originally Posted by mackie

I have an idea for those who are having trouble with stroping. I took a thin piece of wood, about 1/4" or less and cut it to the same width and length of my strop. I then drilled a hole in one end and put the board under the leather and on top of the canvas of my strop. In other words between the two and used the strop. I did not glue it to anything. It just is held with the leather or canvas on top when using. This prevents sagging of the strop when stropping.

Why not just pull it tight?

There is always the problem of still letting it sag a little or cupping or rolling of the strop
I have read that several people were pulling it so tight that their arm was hurting and then finding out it was too much and asking how much should it sag etc.

Kind of sounds like a hanging paddle strop.

Pelkey

It would give a newby the chance to strop without sagging or other problems, but they could also use the leather or canvas without the board to practice. I used to take the strop down and lay it on the table to strop because of not knowing how tight to pull it or whether I was holding it straight. This would prevent having to do that.

Well I'm glad to see I'm not the only MacGyver clone in the crowd.

Pelkey

Not to sound harsh here but you can't learn how to use a manual tranny by driving with an auto and shifting through the gears and you can't learn to use a hanging strop by putting training wheels on it. You just have to use it and learn it properly. For those who don't want to, just buy a paddle or bench strop.

So you are saying you can't drive an automatic and practice on a standard also?
I think it would be nice to have a sharp razor to use while you practice stroping with another. Just my opinion. I started by laying my strop on the table and practicing with it hanging and finally got the technique of it down. I learned to strop the razor first and then after I had that down, I could concentrate on holding the strop properly. It is easy for me now. I would hate to see someone slice their strop because they were trying to learn it all at once. It was just a suggestion and I thought it might help someone. That's all.

In Mack's defense I'd like to say that he may be on to something. There's a few very important things you need to learn to be successful at stropping. If you mess up anyone of them you do an unsatisfactory job if not ruin the edge. Thebigspendur's comment put me on to this.

I teach motorcycle rider safety for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF). I'm both nationally and state licensed. One of the biggest things we teach to novice riders is "muscle memory". We work through the skills necessary to ride one slow step at a time. To use bigspendur's transmission example, we go through several exercises before we even worry about shifting the transmission. We instead concentrate on building muscle memory about using the controls, balance, stopping, starting, turning, etc. We don't move on to shifting until the students no longer need their "training wheels" so to speak.

With Mack's idea a new user can learn a good many aspects of stropping before having to worry about tension. They can develop the muscle memory of proper stance, pressure, flipping the blade, sight and sound, etc. before they need to shift the transmission, i.e., worry about tension. When the user becomes confident he can then remove the back board and perfect his skills toward what we consider to be the correct method.

Just my $1.87.

Pelkey

I was in the martial arts for years and we also taught muscle memory or instant reflex. You first learn to punch with one arm, turning the fist from the waist to the point of impact. Then you practice with the other arm and then with both arms at the same time. Only then do you kick punch, block step turn etc. Way to much to learn all at once.
Not everyone will want to do what I suggested but then not everyone has the same hand eye coordination. Remember wax on wax off. It has to be developed.