Features:

  • Highest Quality Vegetable Tanned leather
  • Surfaced Prepared for Easy Application of Compound
  • 3 Inch Wide, 8 Inch Long, 1/8 Thick
  • 2 oz. of honing Compound
  • Made in USA
Good Stropping Leather

If you want a real nice polished edge after honing your chisels or plane irons this leather works well. I put a primary bevel (25 degrees) on my bench chisels/plane irons with a Work Sharp or my slow speed grinder. I then use a Lee Valley honing guide to put on a secondary bevel (30 degrees) using three water stones up to 8000. Finally, I strop the secondary with the green compound on leather. It takes on a mirror finish and I'll touch it up on the strop for fine work. Realize stropping is not the same as sharpening. Stropping polishes while honing puts the edge on a tool. FYI-I glued the strop to two layers of 3/4" MDF and stapled a piece of shelf/drawer liner to the underside to keep it from sliding when used. Update-I ordered a second leather strop for the suede side to be used with Tormek stropping compound. There were knife slash marks on that side so I had to return it. I ordered another one hoping the first was a fluke. I cleaned off the green compound from the original one and now strop the plain leather side (smooth). I did this since I'm going for scary sharp on some carving chisels and a curved spoon knife. Update-the second strop came and the suede side was good. I attached it to MDF and treated it with light weight oil and Tormak PA70 honing compound. It works great in polishing the secondary bevel on chisels. My carving chisels are scary sharp. I only strop my bench chisels if I'm doing fine work -certainly not for chopping out mortises.

Cuts hard plastic like butter!

I love this product. After sharping on my 6K grit stone, finishing it off with the green compound makes my knives razor sharp... even sharper. I was trying to cut a piece of abs plastic using a brand new razor blade for utility cutters but couldn't make a cut. Through frustration, I pulled out my sharpened knive to do the job and it cut the abs plastic like butter. FYI the knife I used was a cheap $3 knive I got from Walmart so that says something about this product.

Big Strop Block

I have been struggling for years with my knife sharpening skills. It seems I was just missing one main ingredient to put the edge I desired on a knife, this strop block. I must say that im not very good on the stones but now it doesnt matter. After stropping with this block as a final step, my knives are way sharper then they came new out of the box. Now im a stropaholic. Thanks for an awesome product, well worth the money.

Nice! Perfect for my pocket folding whittlers.

I was using a leather belt with polish compound on inside and final dress on untreated finish side. Then belt kept leaving stain on jeans and khakis. This one is a much better alternative. I maintain my pocket knives for wood whittling/carving, in harder woods (e.g. kauila, mamane, guava, &c.). After some water soaking to the "flesh" side, and brushing to get the "suede" up, applied the green compound (even nicer if can skive that down, like I did). Was perfect for knocking down burrs. Flipped over and applied a bit of white compound and achieved a very nice edge with gentle swipes. I typically hone for taking nibbles from my carving projects. After stropping with this leather and compounds was able to shave callouses to paper thin thickness, an OCD/ADHD thing. Stropped a factory new Case Stockman CV and found factory edge to be below par, but this leather got it right . Feels like a 7 iron insole leather, but could be wrong. All in all, great investment and, more importantly, a better alternative to the Flex-Cut PW-14 knife strop.

Great for the price

This is a great strop for 10 bucks. I bought only the leather strop (no block) which comes with the two compounds. I then went to a local wood shop and got a 3x8" block which fits perfectly at cost me less than 1 dollar. I use the smooth side loaded with green compound to finish my kitchen knives and got great results. You can use either side, the compound makes all the difference. The two little blocks of compound will be enough for several months of light use but they are rather small and I will probably need to buy more in the near future. As I said, for 10 bucks, this is a no brainer. Works perfectly. Would totally recommend.

Compound Really Makes A Difference

I've been using an old leather belt for years without any compound and while I always got my blades sharp they were never shaving sharp. But ever since using this leather and compound combo I can get those same blades to shaving sharp status in no time. I enjoy using this leather to strop my blades after I use them and I now find stropping to be a nice relaxing way to pass some spare time. Here is a tip. To get the compound on to the leather out the leather in the microwave for a few seconds just to warm it but not make it hot. Then the compound well spread easily on to the leather like butter on warm bread.

This is the final step that lets you shave with your hand plane blades

I've been messing with stones and plate glass/sandpaper systems trying to get my hand planes super sharp. They're definitely sharp enough to use off of 1500-2000 grit sandpaper on plate glass, but not sharp enough to shave with. This strop with the green compound was the final step needed to be able to shave hairs off and really get ultrafine shavings. Super easy to use and you don't have to get your angles exactly correct, just make sure you're hitting that edge. Very pleased that this cheap solution was the last step I need for getting my hand planes and chisels that last step of ridiculously sharp.

Nice Starter Package

I will probably fix it to a block, but this is high grade stuff for a low price. And wow the seller is interactive and knowledgeable. Don’t hesitate. Just buy it. Well worth the price and more and though I haven’t used the compounds yet, I hear good things. This took the sharpness of my Condor Nessmuck(sp?) to new levels. I just used the smooth and suede side dry after stoning it and wow. That edge is sharp and is REALLY holding. Fantastic low cost investment for anyone that wants a sharp blade. Not all sharpeners use strops. Big mistake. This leaves a sharp, but fragile wire edge on your blade. I highly encourage you to give this a shot. Try an old belt first and then upgrade just so you can see what it does. This is way better than my old belt, but I got an idea from the belt. I will update of the compounds are awful, but somehow I don’t see that happening. This is a night and day difference in blade sharpness and quality. Just be sure and strop away from you, backwards(spine facing forward) and at a very narrow angle. Try it dry at first until you get your angle right. Hope this helped. Cheers, August I promised to talk about the two compounds it came with. They are decent and do the job, but I will probably go with something else when I run out. With that said, most of my blades are sharp as can be and the stroping compounds allow for a mirror finish on the edge grind.

Perfect for the beginner -- Amazing results!

The instructions that come in the package are inspired. The author is patient, unassuming, and wise. The instructions gently led me down the path towards using the suede side of the strap with the green compound for my kitchen cutlery and carry knives. The results were amazing: my decade-old, 6-inch Wusthof chef's knife went from slicing about 5 inches into paper to slicing through all 12 inches of the paper, as if it were factory sharpened. Not just that -- Instead of veering left or right, it cut perfectly straight down through all 12 inches of paper. I am a beginner, with three years of sharpening on a diamond/stone under my belt. A month ago, I gouged my thumb while using a dull bread knife to dice a tough-skinned french bread loaf for croutons. In response, I bought a couple of new knives and started using angle guides religiously to respect the blade angles when sharpening. The results were good -- all my old knives were sharp. But not factory sharp / shaving sharp like the new knives. With this strop, I'm pretty darned close. I followed the instructions to a tee: if the knife is dull, then sharpen it with a coarse or medium sharpening stone. If the knife is already sharp, then hone it on a fine-grade stone. Then use the strop. Unless it's a barber's razor, use the suede side and the green compound. Keep the angle as low as you can, like 10 degrees or lower. Always strop towards the back of the blade, just like a barber in the movies. Only thing to add to the instructions: keep a small stack of printer paper, cut in half, near your knives. Never sharpen or hone a knife without first making five slices through a piece of paper, about 1/4" apart. This takes about 10 seconds for a pairing knife, maybe 20 seconds for a long chef's knife. Sharpen, five slices. Hone, then five more slices. Strop, then five more slices. If you're doing it right, then the knife will cut deeper and deeper into the paper at each stage. If your angle is wrong during sharpening, you'll make the knife even more dull than it was when you began! It takes time to build up the muscle memory required to keep the correct angle constant through each pull across the sharpening surface. A beginner will never get better without objective evidence of effectiveness. Here are links to my tri-hone sharpening system and the angle guides that I find really helpful: Smith's 50008 8-Inch Diamond Tri-Hone Bench Stone https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001I6JGL4 Wedgek Angle Guides (Blue, 1) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4QMO7U

Awesome Deal.

This is a fantastic strop. I have only used the green chromium oxide honing compound so far but it works great. It got my axe and pocket knife both shaving sharp after having first used a 1000 grit stone for sharpening as well as stropping. After stropping with the stone I used this leather and honing compound and the blades went from sharp enough to razor sharp in about 2 minutes. Some other reviewers said that the honing compound is very hard and doesn't easily apply to the leather but that has not been my experience. It is very similar to a rectangular crayon and applies as such. My advise would be to use the edges to apply it and I don't think you'll have any trouble.

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