There are plenty of on-line sites selling strops. The real question is; what is it that you want to sharpen? A straight razor will be best served using a free-hanging Russian Leather strop. If you can't find Russian Leather (or don't want to spend a month's pay buying one,) any good commercially made razor strop will work well. The only thing you apply to them would be strop conditioner (leather conditioner) rather than abrasive stropping compound. You can find a nice selection of these at;
http://www.classicshaving.com/Home.html (perhaps the best quality)
http://www.thewellshavedgentleman.com/
http://www.knifecenter.com (probably the best for price)
For stropping knives (rather than razors) with just a good quality leather strop, you would do well to use a strop that is mounted on a solid platform such as a wooden or plastic base. As long as the strop is made from good quality vegetable tanned hide and is large enough for the job at hand, all work equally well.
I have quite a few that were sold by 'HandAmerican.' These are high quality strops that don't really
require compound. Note the emphasis on the word 'require.' I'll get back to that in a minute.
Texas Knifemakers Supply and Jantz Knife makers Supply both sell good quality leather that you can use to make your own strops, as does Tandy Leather. There is no real trick to making a strop that will be used with stropping compound. I like mine to be 3"-4" wide and about 10"-12" long. I can buy a one-square-foot piece of vegetable tanned cowhide from Jantz and cut it into three very serviceable strops. I use contact cement to glue them down onto 1" thick pine boards and I have three good strops for less than $12 USD.
Back to that 'require' word. Natural cowhide and horsehide has silicates in it. This is an abrasive and is what improves the edge when you strop a knife on it. The better the quality of the leather, the way that it is 'handled' when being prepared for use as a strop, etc., the better the stropping ability of the finished product. But if you use any old smooth leather and apply a coating of an abrasive compound to it, you have a device that can be used to improve the edge of a blade. If you have several different devices, each with an increasingly finer abrasive, you have a method to really bring an edge closer and closer to perfection.
Another question; what geometry are you after? Do you want a beveled edge or a convex edge? For a beveled edge you want to use a thinner hard smooth leather surface. For a convex edge a softer, thicker rough leather works better.
Of course, that leads to the question; how sharp do you want/need your edge to be? Those of us here who do it as a hobby/mental illness will take an edge waaaaaay sharper than any barber ever took his razor to use on a customer. Barber's don't usually use any compound. They use a bare strop. With the geometry of a straight razor that enough to get the edge shaving sharp. With a hunting knife in the hands of a knife knut ('a' knife knut, not 'the' knifeknut,
) different levels of abrasive will be required.
Everybody has their own opinion as to which compounds to use too. Some say red, some say black, some say white, some say green, some say diamonds, some say rust. (The red stuff is rust... Iron oxide... red rouge) I wouldn't be surprise to hear of someone using chunky peanut butter! Just remember this; most barbers don't use anything. Most of us crazies use everything.
So, start by asking yourself what it is that you want to sharpen. How sharp do you
need it to be? How sharp do you
want it to be? How much money do you want to spend on strops? Do you want to use compounds? Which ones? Do you want to buy a strop or make one? Answer these and it should give you some idea of how you'll be spending the next year's rent money.
Stitchawl
