wdwrx
Well-Known Member
Guy’s, I thought I ‘d start a thread for everyone to discuss our various stropping trials and tribulations.
I started out with a very well used “Scorcher” that was given to me by my Barber when I went to show him my first straight. He thought I was nuts to consider using a straight razors, he seemed to think of honing as some form of menial labour...? He was kind enough to give me an old strop he had kicking around.
It had one tremendous nick right in the middle of the shell, and showed some pretty hard wear over-all, but still served to get me through my first month. Unfortunately, now, I’d since treated it with CrOx, and CeOx, and have pretty much rendered it useless for my tastes. In the photo, it os shown with a Canvas strop of my own devising, also treated with CrOx and CeOx. This whole strop set up is generally not used at all now.
The Canvas component is an interesting one, and an indicator to me that this hobby need not require the most expensive equipment to achieve an effective shave.
It is a cheap 10 oz cotton canvas I got locally for less than $15.00. It is as effective as my TM in increasing the HHT results, and lately has proven to be a very cheap test bed for pasting with various substances. (The strops to the right) The one on the extreme left is a plain strop I’d washed in an attempt to soften the it’s hand feeling, but failed miserably at it. The feed back from it is very zippy and quick.
Next to the “Scorcher” are my vintage strops. A Russian shell, sporting a few nicks that were present when I got it, with an diamond embossed back. It’s fairly slick, though it is currently slightly over oiled. The linen component was completely caked with a thick crudy reddish substance that put a very jagged feeling edge on a razor, so I soaked it in lacquer thinner for several days, scrubbed it with a brush, and smacked as much crud out of it as I could. The edge it leaves now is smoother than it was before cleaning, but beyond initial testing, I’ve never used it. It has a feel to the hand very similar to the Kanayama linen, but much more muted. The other piece of vintage leather is strop labeled “Black Bear”. It has a very raspy and slick draw; it seems to be very effective at increasing the HHT results. The reverse has a horizontal line pattern embossed deeply into the leather, and has a commensurately bumpy feed back. It emits a growling sound that really speaks it’s origins. I’ve not used this side at all beyond a quick swipe or two as I think it would be most effective in recovering a razor too far gone for regular stropping.
Next to it is a coti powder treated strop made from a piece of suede-like latigo. It’s split grain leather, so is very soft, with that nice smooth flesh side. The coti powder treated strop shows lots of promise for upping the keenness of a mediocre hone job, which makes me think it will be effective as a maintenance type strop, leaving an edge that feels very smooth, but somewhat different than a CrOx treated edge.
Following are two Bridal leather strops, one in the original glazed finish, and the one to it’s right has been sanded to 800 grit and treated with Mitchell's Wool-fat Soap and rubbed hard with a bottle. The untreated feels very slick, and isn’t nice to use, though it doesn’t seem to damage the edge in any way, I just don’t like it. The treated one though, has a very nice velvety feel with just a bit of raspieness to it.
Smack in the middle is the star of my little show. The leather on the Kanayama is like stropping on velvet; just the right balance of draw against slickness. It’s a smooth as can be and seems to be able to bump my HHT results up into the “silent fall” range. The linen itself is very similar to feel in my vintage linen, with a very similar texture to the stroke. The sensation was uncomfortable enough for me to try gently sanding one side of it, which really helped to mute the worst part of the vibration, and improve it’s feeling to the hand.
The TM should be obvious to most of you. It’s linen is what it is; one of the most highly regarded amongst our community. Of very high quality workmanship, the strop’s style really doesn’t suit me. Less is more as far as I’m concerned, and would much rather have a handleless strop, and the latigo shows some strange raised ridges down it’s center. The draw of Latigo doesn’t appeal to me anyways, so as soon as I find a replacement for the linen, this one will be gone, hopefully before I cut it or otherwise degrade it’s value.
The rest of the strops to the right are several plain strips of canvas that have been treated with various substances: BBW, currently unused/tested, TI Razor Paste, which seems to contain Aluminum Oxide, rated at a 9 on the Moh’s scale, and as reported, seems to provide a very sharp and smooth edge; Dovo Red and Black, not tested since the results would mean anything to me, i tend to use this strop on my kitchen knives; and a Graphite and Wax treatment with some very promising initial results.
So, questions, guidance, ideas, comments, highjacks, and general discussion would be most welcome!
I started out with a very well used “Scorcher” that was given to me by my Barber when I went to show him my first straight. He thought I was nuts to consider using a straight razors, he seemed to think of honing as some form of menial labour...? He was kind enough to give me an old strop he had kicking around.
It had one tremendous nick right in the middle of the shell, and showed some pretty hard wear over-all, but still served to get me through my first month. Unfortunately, now, I’d since treated it with CrOx, and CeOx, and have pretty much rendered it useless for my tastes. In the photo, it os shown with a Canvas strop of my own devising, also treated with CrOx and CeOx. This whole strop set up is generally not used at all now.
The Canvas component is an interesting one, and an indicator to me that this hobby need not require the most expensive equipment to achieve an effective shave.
It is a cheap 10 oz cotton canvas I got locally for less than $15.00. It is as effective as my TM in increasing the HHT results, and lately has proven to be a very cheap test bed for pasting with various substances. (The strops to the right) The one on the extreme left is a plain strop I’d washed in an attempt to soften the it’s hand feeling, but failed miserably at it. The feed back from it is very zippy and quick.
Next to the “Scorcher” are my vintage strops. A Russian shell, sporting a few nicks that were present when I got it, with an diamond embossed back. It’s fairly slick, though it is currently slightly over oiled. The linen component was completely caked with a thick crudy reddish substance that put a very jagged feeling edge on a razor, so I soaked it in lacquer thinner for several days, scrubbed it with a brush, and smacked as much crud out of it as I could. The edge it leaves now is smoother than it was before cleaning, but beyond initial testing, I’ve never used it. It has a feel to the hand very similar to the Kanayama linen, but much more muted. The other piece of vintage leather is strop labeled “Black Bear”. It has a very raspy and slick draw; it seems to be very effective at increasing the HHT results. The reverse has a horizontal line pattern embossed deeply into the leather, and has a commensurately bumpy feed back. It emits a growling sound that really speaks it’s origins. I’ve not used this side at all beyond a quick swipe or two as I think it would be most effective in recovering a razor too far gone for regular stropping.
Next to it is a coti powder treated strop made from a piece of suede-like latigo. It’s split grain leather, so is very soft, with that nice smooth flesh side. The coti powder treated strop shows lots of promise for upping the keenness of a mediocre hone job, which makes me think it will be effective as a maintenance type strop, leaving an edge that feels very smooth, but somewhat different than a CrOx treated edge.
Following are two Bridal leather strops, one in the original glazed finish, and the one to it’s right has been sanded to 800 grit and treated with Mitchell's Wool-fat Soap and rubbed hard with a bottle. The untreated feels very slick, and isn’t nice to use, though it doesn’t seem to damage the edge in any way, I just don’t like it. The treated one though, has a very nice velvety feel with just a bit of raspieness to it.
Smack in the middle is the star of my little show. The leather on the Kanayama is like stropping on velvet; just the right balance of draw against slickness. It’s a smooth as can be and seems to be able to bump my HHT results up into the “silent fall” range. The linen itself is very similar to feel in my vintage linen, with a very similar texture to the stroke. The sensation was uncomfortable enough for me to try gently sanding one side of it, which really helped to mute the worst part of the vibration, and improve it’s feeling to the hand.
The TM should be obvious to most of you. It’s linen is what it is; one of the most highly regarded amongst our community. Of very high quality workmanship, the strop’s style really doesn’t suit me. Less is more as far as I’m concerned, and would much rather have a handleless strop, and the latigo shows some strange raised ridges down it’s center. The draw of Latigo doesn’t appeal to me anyways, so as soon as I find a replacement for the linen, this one will be gone, hopefully before I cut it or otherwise degrade it’s value.
The rest of the strops to the right are several plain strips of canvas that have been treated with various substances: BBW, currently unused/tested, TI Razor Paste, which seems to contain Aluminum Oxide, rated at a 9 on the Moh’s scale, and as reported, seems to provide a very sharp and smooth edge; Dovo Red and Black, not tested since the results would mean anything to me, i tend to use this strop on my kitchen knives; and a Graphite and Wax treatment with some very promising initial results.
So, questions, guidance, ideas, comments, highjacks, and general discussion would be most welcome!
- Most appreciated and looking forward to it. 
