A simple way to a great edge
You use a strop because you want to put perfect edge on a knife or tool. Instead of bringing your stones when you're on the go, bring a strop to keep your edge in perfect shape.
Convenient and Portable Quality
We've taken time to design this for maximum usefulness and portability. There are so many times when you need a sharp knife and you're nowhere near your sharpening stones. Instead of traveling everyone with a set of stones, leave your stones at home and just travel with a simple and durable strop. This handheld strop measures 6" long and 1 1/2" wide. It is small enough to take with you or fit in a glove box. However, it is still plenty large to keep your knife sharp while you're on the go. All our Leather Bench Strops are made of leather bonded to a solid wood base and accept honing compounds of various grades. We recommend our Green Honing Compound.
Use With Knives and Tools
The leather strop isn’t new to sharpening but it is still confusing to some. Like a razor strop, the Travel Strop is used to put a very fine edge on your blade. Barbers have been using leather razor strops for decades to keep an extremely sharp edge on their straight razors. The razor strop is an essential tool for any barber or anyone needing to keep a straight razor sharp enough to shave with. While a razor strop can be used to sharpen a traditional knife, it just isn’t the right tool for the job. For putting the final edge on tools and knives, we recommend our Leather Travel Strop. Think of the Hand Strop as a very fine sharpening stone that you can take anywhere, just handheld.
Choose Smooth or Suede Leather
Strops can be made with smooth leather (grain side) or suede leather (flesh side). When deciding which one to carry we had to consider not only our own preferences but also the preferences of others for woodworking tools, carving tools, and knife sharpening. We even put them to a performance test and in the end, either one worked great. Instead of just carrying one type, we decided to carry both.
Smooth - The smooth leather option is a very firm piece of leather. This leather is selected specifically for the smooth side only. If the leather is too hard, it just doesn't doesn't work well and doesn't accept compound well. If the leather is too soft, it doesn't produce as fine of an edge and won't hold up. This leather is more durable than the soft.
Suede - The rough side uses the opposite side of the leather (it is technically called the flesh side). The leather we use is selected for its flesh side properties. This leather is different leather than our smooth side leather. In our research, the leather that makes a good suede side is different than the leather that makes a good smooth side. Our suede leather is a little softer than the smooth leather. The suede leather accepts compound very readily.
Made with pride in the USA.
Q. Does the leather cover the entire surface of the strop?
A. Yes, the leather comes all the way to the edge. This allows you to use it like you would any other stones.
Q. Do you recommend using a compound on the strop?
A. Yes, we highly recommend a compound. Our Green Honing Compound will quickly put a fine polish on the edge of knives and tools.
Q. What are the differences between the various strops you offer?
A. To see all our mounted strops side-by-side, check out our article Comparing Mounted Leather Strops.
