Deerskin Strops

I haven’t heard anyone mention deerskin in the three years I’ve been on this forum. Maybe it’s because the thickness is too different. If the thickness is off, then you have to use the “Variable Stone Thickness Adapters.” A thinner leather would result in a higher angle, causing polishing action right at the top of the edge.

I almost made some at the end of last year but got sidetracked. I believe 95% of it is what compound you put on it and technique. It would be cool to make some though. Arkansas oil stones with deerskin strops.

For a rather unpleasant four months in my life, I worked at a large leather tannery. The cow hides were processed to remove the flesh and hair and then were soaked and tumbled in huge drums with some solutions of chromate and ammonia. Not sure about the chemistry, all I know is is was blue and it would clear your sinuses. After that, the hides went to the pasting department, were they were literally pasted up against large sheets of clear plastic which ran on an overhead conveyor chain through a very large heating system for drying. This flattened the hides, stiffened them and made the outside face smooth. I suspect that this is the part that’s missing in deer skin.

Why not make a set of lapping blocks out of something like bearing bronze or sintered iron and charging them with diamond paste? No more rounding the edge like with leather. Bamboo might work; balsa is halfway between a lap and a strop.
Most lapping plates I have encountered have been cast iron but it just has to be softer than the material being lapped and able to hold the abrasive. Some porosity to give larger grains of abrasive somewhere to go as well as the swarf is a plus with materials like sintered iron.