Hard Polymer Strops

Introducing our new hard polymer strops for polishing past the final stone grit. They are significantly harder than veg tanned cow leather to virtually eliminate convexing of the apex, soft enough to not chip ceramic edges, are very wear resistant, and easy to clean. They are made with the same aluminum mounts as our stones and are the same finished thicknesses. They don’t absorb water or abrasives and are non abrasive themselves so you must add your favorite abrasive before use. While not holding the abrasive like leather or wood is somewhat inconvenient, they are very easy to clean if/when they get contaminated and you can use one strop with many size abrasives if you clean between them. I use one strop for 5 to 40 micron emulsions and a second strop for 1 micron emulsion. 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.

I have only tested them with oil and water based diamond and aluminum oxide emulsions. I don’t have any bar or wax 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 success with very little diamond on them used wet. While I do everything possible to ensure these strops are free of voids or other minor imperfections, I can not guarantee they will be. While they are unsightly, I have never seen them affect how the strops perform.