Introducing our new polymer hard strop for polishing past the final stone grit. It is significantly harder than veg tanned cow leather to greatly lessen convexing of the apex, is very wear resistant, and easy to clean. They are made with the same aluminum mounts as our stones and are the same finished thickness. They don’t absorb water or abrasive and are non abrasive themselves so you must add your favorite abrasive before use. While not holding the abrasive like leather or wood is inconvenient they are very easy to clean if/when they get contaminated. They will stay flat and won’t change shape like leather if you get them wet.
The images above were taken with a microscope to show the finish left after a 5m stone and strops with different diamond sizes. The finish from the 5m stone is a mirror with some haze and the lighting was not changed between photos. The difference in lighting is how much less light is being reflected as the scratches become finer. 20 edge trailing passes were used with each stone or strop using a guided sharpener. I added the finish left from a new bare leather strop so you can see the random scratches it leaves. If you enlarge one photo you can then scroll through them all in the larger format.
WARNING – These are a new product and I have only tested them with water based diamond and aluminum oxide sprays. I don’t have any bar or oil carrier compounds so I haven’t tested them with these strops. When loading them I use the less is more rule of thumb and have had good success with very little diamond on them used wet. They are only available in the 1″x4″ format with a hard resin for now to test their acceptance.
Ray Anthony (verified owner) –
Neat idea that solves a number of problems like cleaning after cross contamination, leather deforming when wet and rounding the apex. I’m pretty happy with the one I’ve tested on and just purchased a few more. Definitely interested in 6×2 or 8×3 variants.