kanayama strop.....the next

[Harvitz81]

I bought a 60K recently that was well used and broke in. I did nothing to the linen and absolutely love it. The leather is just incredible on these. Basically the only strop I use now.

 

[Bart]

I did nothing to the linen and absolutely love it.

Out of curiosity, does the linen arrive supple or rigid nowadays?

With supple I mean that if you hang it over one finger, both ends curve to hang vertically. With rigid, I mean that both ends bow only a bit, as if you were balancing a piece of cardboard on your finger.

Thanks,
Bart.

 

[Mr.B]

Hello Bart,

the linen arrives rigid, at least mine.
Strangely, I soaked it in softener for over 12 hours, and now, after 48 hours of drying it still is very rigid...
I guess I'll have to try with another brand of fabric softener.

 

[garyhaywood]

I soaked mine in comfort conditioner. this made mine feel more softer to strop on , rather than hard er surface , its a thick piece of linen, so i guess it would not be as floppy as the tony miller or torolf linens as they are much thinner.

 

[Harvitz81]

I did nothing to the linen and absolutely love it.

Out of curiosity, does the linen arrive supple or rigid nowadays?

With supple I mean that if you hang it over one finger, both ends curve to hang vertically. With rigid, I mean that both ends bow only a bit, as if you were balancing a piece of cardboard on your finger.

Thanks,
Bart.

I'll check it out later this evening. Though the one I bought was well used and broken in so I'm not sure I can give you the best answer to how they come from the source these days.

 

[Bart]

Hello Bart,

the linen arrives rigid, at least mine.
Strangely, I soaked it in softener for over 12 hours, and now, after 48 hours of drying it still is very rigid...
I guess I'll have to try with another brand of fabric softener.

Just to make sure that you did everything right, here's some additional information.

Most laundry softeners are highly concentrated. They must be add to water to work well. It is equally important to rinse the strop in clear water afterwards. I have soaked three of these strops in total, on the second I decided to try pure conditioner without rinsing. The result was that the strop stayed rigid and tacky. A good rinse in a bath with lukewarm water, solved the situation.
All three strops stayed rigid till they were completely dry. The first time, I thought the process failed, because the strop stayed stiff during the drying process. I let the dry to the air. When they're dry they become much softer, but the mechanical treatment shown in the YouTube video earlier in this thread will loosen the linen even a bit extra.

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[Mr.B]

Thank you for all the precisions, I appreciate them very much!
I did a mixture of about 50/50 of softener and water, but maybe I didn't stir enough, or my rinsing wasn't as thorough as necessary. The linen seems a bit softer but not as much as I expected.
I'll repeat the procedure with comfort softener, a bit more water, a more thorough rinse and some mechanical treatment.

I will report if it does improve the softness of the linen...

On a side note, it's true that one can't assess the softness until the fabric is truly dry.

Best regards,

B

 

[Toff]

After this amount of time has passed do you folks still think the softener process is worth while? I am awaiting my new Kanayama 50000. It is due some time in the next few weeks!
Thanks
~Richard

 

[wdwrx]

nope.

 

[Bart]

I don't know if Kanayama changed anything to his linen lately. But the softening process described in this thread definitely makes a huge difference for the stiff and rigid linen I received with mine.

Why Chris writes "nope", without any further elaboration, escapes me.

Best regards,
Bart.

 

[Mr.B]

Just to report back on my experiment with the Kanayama linen:

The use of a no-name softener did not give me the expected result, so I tried it again, this time with the Comfort brand, and the result is quite different. The linen is much softer now.

Best regards,
Mr. B

 

[garyhaywood]

:thumbup: you carn't beat comfort

 

[tat2Ralfy]

Hahahaha