Anyone ever used deerskin on their WEPS strops? If so, how does it compare to kangaroo leather?
Thanks in advance!
20+ views and no contributions?.. C’mon.
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’ve never used dearskin strops, but if the leather is indeed pretty thick, I wouldn’t use it. Too much angle variance. And there are good alternatives: cow leather and kangaroo leather. Or balsa wood if you don’t want any variance at all.
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.
Well, I jumped the gun and picked up a piece deerskin at a local hobby store. It looks around 1/32" thick. I’ll make a video here pretty soon going over the process, results, etc.
Stay tuned!
I didn’t have the time to make a video, but I did get to test out the deerskin I put on my 1 micron and .5 micron strops. They definitely did a great job at polishing. However, the edge had a bit less bite afterwards but was still very sharp.
Here are my thoughts as to why this is:
Unlike tanned vegetable leather which has a relatively hard and uniform surface, deerskin has a plush and porous surface that has more “give” to it. That being said, I believe it slightly convexes the edge as it rolls over the apex.
UPDATE: Not enough stiction. Decided to go back to tanned vegetable leather.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Not recommended for use as stropping media.
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.
TC,
Wow. I can’t even imagine what that was like. All those chemicals. All those smells. Yikes! But, in the end, I’m sure you’re a better man having been through such an experience. I’m certainly grateful you chimed and provided that information because it totally makes sense.
Thank you for the wisdom and insight, sir.
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.