How to Make Barber Strops

The carpenter's square helps you set perfect corners.

Barbers and those who use straight razors to shave know that the last step to sharpening a razor is stropping. A strop is a strip of tanned leather. When you rub the blade on it, it removes the burrs that formed on the leading edge of the blade during honing. Stropping between shaves also helps keep the blade sharp and lengthens the time between honing. Learn to make your own barber strop and keep your straight razor in top condition. Does this Spark an idea?

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Tanned hide, at least 2.5 inches X 26.5 inches
Carpenter's square
Pencil
Metal yardstick
Awl
D-ring

Instructions

- 1
  
  Lay out the leather with the flesh, or rough, side up.
- 2
  
  Lay out the lines you will cut. Set the inside corner of the carpenter's square where you want to cut the corner of the strop. Orient the square so that one leg runs across the top of the strop and the other extends down the length of the strop. Make a dot at that corner with a pencil and write the letter "A" next to it. Make another dot 2.5 inches down the square to set the other corner and write the letter "B" next to it. Mark a third dot as far down the other leg as you can and mark it with letter "C."
- 3
  
  Set a metal yardstick to connect dots "A" and "C." Make another dot, labeled "D," 24 inches from dot "A." Mark a second dot, labeled "E," 18 inches from dot "A."
- 4
  
  The carpenter's square helps you set perfect corners.
  
  Set the inside corner of the carpenter's square on dot "D" and align it so that the inside of one of the arms intersects dot "E" and the other runs along the width of the bottom of the strop. Mark dot "F" 2.5 inches from dot "D" to set the width of the bottom end of the strop.
- 5
  
  Align the yardstick with dots "A" and "D" and use the yardstick to guide your knife as you cut the side of the strop. Use the same method to make cuts between points "A" and "B," "F" and "B," and "D" and "F."
- 6
  
  Cut a piece of leather that is 2.5 inches square and a strip of leather that is about 1/8-inch wide and 8 inches long.
- 7
  
  Fold the square piece of leather over the straight part of a D-ring, then place it at the end of the strop. The square should straddle the width of the strop, with one half of the square on the flesh side of the strop and the other half of the square on the tanned side. The D-ring should rest along the top width of the strop.
- 8
  
  Punch an awl twice through the square of leather as is straddles the strop. Make the punches parallel to the width of the strop and about 1.5 inches apart. The punches should pierce the square of leather, then the strop, then the other half of the square of leather beneath the strop.
- 9
  
  Use an awl to punch through the leather.
  
  Push one end of the strip of leather through each of the holes. Use the awl to push the strip through to the other side, then turn the strop over and tie the loose ends together.