Strop Adhesive Questiom

Barge

Jack Guzman from Maine

Barge leatherworkers cement or liquid hide glue. I imagine just about any woodworking glue will work.

Barge/contact cement is probably best

David Weaver

...but I've used hide glue and tite bond and never had any of them let go despite frequent oiling.

Re: Strop Adhesive Questiom

William Duffield

I would not use MDF as a substrate. I think Baltic Birch would be a better choice.

Barge cement is a good choice, but not necessary. I've glued stops down before I obtained my first can of Barge, so I know other products work well enough. However, I don't remember what I last used. It may have been liquid hide glue, or epoxy, or Titebond I, II, or III, or even 3M Super 77 spray adhesive.

I'm not sure that even Barge would work well enough to attach a leather pad to a steel holdfast due to the very strong lateral stresses involved in setting and releasing the holdfast. Does anyone have an adhesive that works well for this application?

contact cement ...

David Weaver

which is barge, right? sand the pad of the holdfast if needed and give it adequate time to dry.

I use "shoe goo" to hold on two aluminum angle pieces in my metal vise and then often tighten things to "lifting a 400 pound bench" end off of the ground to get the vise loose sometimes. The glue surface between the two isn't exactly ideal and I generally haven't had to refresh the glue more than once a year.

If the piece does ever come loose from the hold fast, it'll take a minute to re-apply two of them.

Same with the face of my wood vise - just shoe goo.

But I've never had any type of strop come loose even though I oil mine heavily. The only issue I've ever had is leather that's porous using titebond - if the glue makes its way most of the way through the strop, there will be hard spots. I did this with old junk leather and the only fix for that is the garbage can.

That's my only warning - if the glue is a type that will soak into leather deeply (like a water based glue) don't use so much that you end up glue sizing the leather into a solid block.

Re: Strop Adhesive Questiom

AlanWS

Hot hide glue works well, both for attaching a leather strop to, in my case MDF (it's remained flat and stably adhered for at least several years,) and for leather to steel on holdfasts. After about 5 years, one of the 4 holdfast pads did come off and needed to be reattached.

Re: Strop Adhesive Questiom

Paul in NJ

Hi Bill,

Poly-urethane glue (Gorilla glue) has worked great on my holdfast. It has been the best, in my opinion, for gluing dissimilar materials. Don't bother wetting the pieces with water as per directions, there is enough humidity in the air. It foams less without the extra water.

regards,

Paul Dzioba

Re: I wouldn't use

Paul in NJ

for a strop. Hide glue or titebond is fine.