Sanding strops

[Eamon Mc Gowan]

Hey this is actually for my Surgi sharp leather belt. Does anybody know the proper grit of sandpaper to clean and ruff up the surface? I would rather get my info from you guys then the other forums. As usual thanks in advance! 🙂

[Leo Barr]

I would hazard a guess since I have done a lot of sanding(not on strops but the paper will either bite or clog ) that if you go to fine it will just clog the surface of the paper (use wet & dry) but I would try 600 grit to begin with I would tape it onto a sheet of glass or formica if it clogs up then go to a lower grit say 400 once you have cleaned the surface then work up to the finest wet & dry all on glass it wants to be perfectly flat a smooth when finished .
So I would progress up to 1800/2000 .
When you start use just enough pressure for the paper to bite no more otherwise it will just clog let the movement not the pressure do the work. You can probable wash off the paper but I think you should do it dry or possible with medical alcohol instead of water.
This is how I would try it I am not saying this is kosher but an idea to start the ball rolling .

[Geocyclist]

I have only done this once or twice. I used 220 or 300 paper once. Got decent results (didn’t make them worse).

What I would add here is to use alcohol. I used just alcohol once with a dish rag or green dish scrubbing pad and got the strops “clean” meaning a lot of black came off. With this it did not remove gashes, but they were smooth afterwords. I was pleased with the results.

From Clay’s advice somewhere on here I used alcohol before reloading them. Not wet, but good and damp.

[Josh]

Eamon, I haven’t tried this on strops yet, but I have done it on shiny leather boots and it works great. Get you one of those green scotch brite pads and use it in circles until the smooth leather is roughed up. On the surgisharp belt you aren’t worried as much about perfection as you are about roughing up the surface to accept and hold your polishing compound. Ps. If you need a good source on compound, let me know. I’ve tried a bunch and know what works 🙂

[Author]

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