Making a linen strop out of denim
To make a "linen" strop out of denim, you need an outer piece wrapped around a core piece, to simulate the weaves of yesteryear which were continuous & had no edges. My first attempt at this used a strip of soft plastic for the core, and silicone RTV adhesive. The adhesive was too liquid & bled through the cloth, and the plastic was too hard, resulting in a strop that felt hard and scratchy.[1]
Background
I decided the results would be better if I used a fabric core instead of plastic, and contact cement. I used DAP Weldwood Contact Cement from the hardware store. It comes in a bottle with a built-in brush attached to the inside of the lid.
Making the strop
- Making the strop
Cut two strips of denim, one an inch wider than the other. The width of the narrower piece will be the width of your finished strop Use some bits of packing tape or duct tape to hold them flat to the table, slightly (but not overly) stretched out. Coat both pieces with contact cement.
When the glue is dry (about 15 min), stick the narrower piece to the middle of the wider piece. Put some cement on the edges of the wider piece and on the edges of the narrower piece. Wait for the cement to dry, then fold the edges over, starting from the middle.
Now you have a strip of denim without an apparent edge. Sew on some D-rings and you're done.
You can use any twill fabric (twill is identifiable by the diagonal pattern on the back--look it up on Wikipedia). Denim is twill, Chino is not.
Also, don't fiddle-fart around with the placement. Contact cement bonds the instant it touches itself & it can't be moved. pull the center piece slightly taught, then ram it authoritatively onto the larger piece in one confident motion.
