Leather Strop Board, Walnut Paddle with Polishing Compound

A strop is leather over a flat board and it is the last thing an edge should touch before you work with it. This one is a 12 inch walnut paddle with a 2.5 inch face of vegetable tanned leather bonded flat to the wood. A tin of green polishing compound comes with it. No knife is included. You bring the blade.

Specification

The leather

The face is vegetable tanned full grain, tanned with bark rather than chemicals, and that is why it is here. Vegetable tanned leather is firm and it stays firm. A soft face rolls under the blade and rounds off the very edge you are trying to straighten. There is no tooling. The face is left smooth, because a stamped pattern gives the compound somewhere to sit where the blade never goes. It starts pale and darkens as the compound loads in. After a year the middle is close to black.

How it is made

The paddle is cut from walnut and shaped so the handle sits in your palm, 12 inches from end to end. The leather is cut oversize, glued flat to the wood, then trimmed level with the edge of the paddle so there is no lip for a blade to catch. Nothing is stitched here and there is no welt, since nothing is wrapped around steel. The walnut edges are sanded and oiled instead of burnished. A hanging hole goes through the handle.

How it is used

Rub compound onto the leather until the face has gone green. Lay the blade flat with the edge trailing and drag it backwards along the board, never into the edge. Turn it over and repeat, with light pressure. Ten passes a side is plenty. This goes after a stone, not instead of one. A stone cuts metal away. The strop straightens the last thin part of the edge and polishes it.

Who it suits

If you sharpen already and the edge fades faster than the steel deserves, this is the missing step.

• Cooks who want an edge to hold between sharpenings
• Anyone who owns a stone but no strop
• Woodworkers keeping chisels and plane irons keen
• People who would rather spend a minute than ten

What comes in the box

• The 12 inch walnut strop board
• One tin of green polishing compound
• A care card
• No knife is included, and no sharpening stone

Every piece is different

Walnut came off a tree and no two boards read the same. One paddle has dark streaks down it, the next is quiet and even brown. The leather takes oil at its own rate, so faces vary in shade before use. What arrives will be close to the photographs, not a copy.

Looking after it

The face does not want conditioner while it is in use, since the compound keeps it fed. Keep it dry and off the wet end of the bench. If the leather glazes and stops biting, scratch the surface up with the edge of a steel ruler and load fresh compound on. Never wash the face and never leave it near heat. More is on our knife care and sharpening page.

Put a name on it

Initials go into the leather with a stamp rather than a laser. You add it on the product page. It is 20 dollars per piece. Around 20 characters fits, so initials or a short name rather than a sentence. We send a proof image before the stamp is struck, which adds 3 to 5 business days. Free on orders of 10 or more. The engraving page has the rest.

Questions buyers ask

Does a knife come with this? No. The strop board and one tin of compound, nothing else.

What size blade does it fit? Any blade. This is a finishing tool, not a fitted case.

How long does shipping take? Most US orders arrive in 5 to 7 business days.

Can I use this instead of a stone? No. Stropping removes no metal. A blunt edge wants the stone first.

How often should I strop? Every few uses. It takes under a minute.

Will the compound run out? Eventually. Any green honing compound replaces it.

The stone that comes before this one sits in the hand tooled leather sharpening stone pouch, which ships with a bench stone. The leather knife care kit rolls a stone, a strop insert, a cloth and oil together. This board sits in sheaths and accessories, it turns up in gifts for him, and the newest work is under new arrivals.