What's New?
ShavingUniverse.com

Register a free account now!

If you are registered, you get access to the members only section, can participate in the buy & sell second hand forum and last but not least you can reserve your preferred username before someone else takes it.

kanayama strop.....the next

jfdupuis said:
Question for you guys...Have you used the Kanayama linen directly after honing or only as regular "maintenance" stropping. After doing a lot of breaking in, I've determined that the linen does work to maintain an edge, but when it comes to the first after noning stropping session, it does not hold up to my webbed fabric strop.

JF
Click to expand...

The whole idea behind my efforts in this thread is to render the Kanayama linen fully functional, also for "first time"stropping after honing.

My Kanayama linen/leather combinatioin is as efficient as my Tony Miller linen + Old Tradional leather strop.
I don't know how a webbed fabric strop works. I've tried to use one on occasion and hated it. But that's just me. If the webbed fabric works for you, that's just great. But based on my limited experience, are you sure that yours doesn't have some kind of diamond spray on it?

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
That can be remedied, Bart. I'll send you a spare 3" strip. You'll love it once you get used to it. Honest.
 
Hey Bart,

The strop is clean. I personally don't really enjoy the feeling and noise of the webbed fabric, but it performs extremely well at boosting my HHT feedbacks. My kanayama linen is now very soft and feels extremely good. I will try to strop on the Kanayama linen tonight. It certainly does not reduce the HHT result as it did when I first took it out of the box. By the way, I'm really excited about having the chance to test some "Bart honed" razors. I'm sure you will put my own skills to shame :)
 
BeBerlin said:
That can be remedied, Bart. I'll send you a spare 3" strip. You'll love it once you get used to it. Honest.
Click to expand...

That is highly unlikely. Straight razor shaving is to me very much about artisan and organic qualities. Because of it, I have absolutely no interest in the following:
- shaving with "shavette" style razors that hold a disposable industry blade.
- the use of pre-shave oils (eventually someone will succeed in adding chitin-degrading enzymes, at which point the user only needs to wipe the beard of his face with a spoon)
- the use of polymer materials for stropping. No seatbelt stropping for me, my strops are of organic source.
- Teflon finished straight razor edges. (not yet invented, but eventually someone will come up with it)

Please note that I am not opposed against any of the above. It's just a matter of a few personal choices, that I don't expect any one to understand or follow.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Oh believe me, we understand ;)

And some of us feel almost the same

I do love my Proraso crema pre barba though

Best regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
emmanuel said:
Dear mates and especially Bart ,because i disagreed with him for the kanayama linen.I found another way.After i did all procedures that mentioned in this post (Bart softening method,washing etc , i mixed dovo white paste with a water soluble color (like casia) i make the same color as the linen stuffing the pores with this.Once dried the linen working very well
as the others linens.
Best regards
Emmanuel
Click to expand...

Bart
In a previous thread i suggested this process and i did it because as i have been informed by you, you prefer the closed pores and for my opinion the problem with klinen (if exists) is not as the hardness as the the dip pores.You didn't reply me ,maybe message is lost.What you suggest.
Rgds
Emmanuel
 
Yes, I do remember your post, Emmanuel. Sadly, I can't reply to all posts made on this forum, and there Iis often a lot of interesting stuff going on that qi have to let pass by. I'm sorry about that.

Concerning the practice to clog the pores of a fabric strop with a substance that offers a mild buffing action, of about the same hardness as the fibers of the fabric, yes, I seem to end up doing that with my fabric strops and prefer how they feel after such a treatment.

It is likely that I'll end up doing the same with my Kanayama linen. But I believe it falls beyond the scope of this thread. So far, we have been conditioning the fabric with mechanical and chemical treatments (breaking it in, applying steam, soaking in laundry softener). Granted that the laundry softener adds some molecules that add lubrication to the fibers, non of these methods add something to the strop that takes part in the actual stropping action. I think we must confine ourselfs to such methods for the purpose of this thread.

The second one of my 2 samples is soaking in laundry softener right now. When it's done, I'll be able to compare the improvement with the strop that received only the mechanical treatment. At that point, I think we'll be able to formulate some final recommendations.

I don't feel "clog the pores" should be part of such recommendations. That does remain a sort of optional practice, in my opinion.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Thanks Bart dont forget to remove the leather which is simply stacked on the linen with a toluene adhesive before the laundry softener to avoid the stains on it.
Best regards
Emmanuel
 
You guys suck. I followed Gaz', Bart's, Emmanuel's, and JF's directions to the letter and look at my linen! I might have used a little too much heat and washed it ten or twelve too many times, but sheesh, I haven't seen shrinkage like this since I was in Red Deer.

PHONEPICSOCT2010109.jpg


Shit, there goes the smoke alarm.
 
I have just discovered that the best method is to burn the strop with a blowtorch, and use the ashes to paste the Cordoban leather.
The shaves are U N F U C K I N G B E L I E V A B L Y smooth.

Try it.
 
Bart said:
I have just discovered that the best method is to burn the strop with a blowtorch, and use the ashes to paste the Cordoban leather.
The shaves are U N F U C K I N G B E L I E V A B L Y smooth.

Try it.
Click to expand...

+1:sneaky:
 
DJKELLY said:
You guys suck. I followed Gaz', Bart's, Emmanuel's, and JF's directions to the letter and look at my linen! I might have used a little too much heat and washed it ten or twelve too many times, but sheesh, I haven't seen shrinkage like this since I was in Red Deer.

PHONEPICSOCT2010109.jpg


Shit, there goes the smoke alarm.
Click to expand...

Is this AFTERBURNER Denny ?
Your friend
Emmanuel
 
After soaking it about 48 hours in water+laundry softener, I took out the strop last night and let it dry on a towel that I placed on a flat surface. This morning, the strop was still a bit damp, and the whole process didn't seem to be making much of a difference. Yet tonight, when I got home from work, I found the strop completely dry, and it felt differently. Definitely softer. I repeated the mechanical exercises, compared the strop with the other specimen that was only mechanically treated. This mechanically treated linen is perfect already. I doubt I would have ever bothered with the additional laundry softener treatment, if it wasn't for this thread. But the additional improvement of the laundry softener is absolutely striking. I have never used a nicer strop. It's luxuriously thick yet supple and very nice in its feedback. Nicer than the unsoftened sample. Nicer than any fabric strop I own. And an absolutely worthy component for the leather of the Kanayama strop.

The strop became 15mm shorter. I can't notice a difference in width. This shortening happened during the soaking and drying process. (cold water, room temperature). Before soaking it, I ironed this fabric strop with a steam engine iron at hottest setting and loads of steam. No shrinking at that point. So it had to happen during the soaking/drying treatment. It doesn't bother me. 15mm isn't much. The leather "grip" end of the strop has darkened a bit.

The performance is as good as before the laundry softener, but the feel is twice as nice, and 20 times as nice as the stiff straps out of the box.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Thanks Bart. I've been waiting for you to confirm Gary's fabric conditioner/steam iron method.
So far I have only tried your manipulation.
While it's obvious you like the feel of the linen after the above treatment, you make no mention of how it performs with regards to improving the razors edge off the hone. (unless I missed it?)

Can I assume it's made a big difference?

Cheers,

David.
 
Bart said:
The performance is as good as before the laundry softener, but the feel is twice as nice, and 20 times as nice as the stiff straps out of the box.

Kind regards,
Bart.
Click to expand...

Yep...I missed it.
suicide.gif
 
I don't use liquid fabric softener. We use the little sheets instead. Do you guys think I could soak 2-3 of those in water and get similar results? I don't really want to buy the liquid softener for this purpose alone.

Cheers,

JF
 
We don't use any softener at all for our laundry. I had to buy a bottle. Cost me 2 EUR. :)

I don't know about those sheets. This is all unexplored territory.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
well I filled up the bathtub at lunch time and put 4 sheets in in. I could definitely feel that the water was getting different and that the substance contained in the sheets was dissolving in the water. I'll report back when I get home in a few hours. Bart, any update on the razors?

Thanks!

JF
 
Well just Bought a tony miller red latigo with linen off b&b!
Should be perfect to use before the kanayama!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top