A good strop is key to maintaining your sloyd carving knife edge. Thin dense leather is best, and enough width and length to make a firm long pass is key. I’m using a 10” long piece 1.2-1.6mm veg tanned shoulder. Having a smooth side strop is important as well as enough suede strops to use all the compounds you like, I like green or white (fine compound) and black or grey (coarse compound). The final ingredient in my personal special sauce is pressure. You want to be able to apply a little pressure to the edge so I bond my leather to full 1” or slightly thicker stock so that I can clamp it in a vice and still have the clearance so the handle doesn’t bump the vice. Laying some non slip mat (tool box liner or yoga mat) on your bench is another way to accomplish this without a vice, but I prefer the vice.

Dimensions of the stops are 10” L, 1.75” W, 1” H (or slightly thicker if I can). They are going to be made with a variety of Hardwoods while I clear out some old wood stock.