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linen

garyhaywood

Well-Known Member
Bart as linen strop seems to realy work for me in the way it improves that final stage to keeness and hht boost. I use tm linen for best results. do you think the canvas /linen acts as like,say a pasted strop . oviously by not using paste but can have a similar efect as say cro ox on a strop .with out paste . it seems that way to me .the reason i ask this is i have tryed differant materials and seen a differance. My tony miller linen does work very well in improving my shaves. for example when i went on holiday i used just my leather travel strop . the first couple of shaves were great . then i felt in my 3rd shave a little quality had gone and actauly felt the need for linen and a proper strop.Now when i got home the first thing i did was 50 laps on linen and 50 laps on leather. The shave was like a newly honed razor. such a differance with having to touch a hone. i have also compared canvas and other linen. they seemed to not work like my tm linen.i no this has been discussed before. As time as gone on i for one have noticed the differance with certain canvas /linens. I 'm sure if coticule honers are using the right meterial they will stand a better chance of getting that final edge.
 
While I'm not Bart, I'll offer that my experience mirrors yours. However, I've been pretty impressed by one maker's synthetic linen as well. I'm not sure if there's an appreciable difference in the performance of either, but I enjoy the process much more with the TM linen. :)

I will say that the linen certainly appears to have an abrasive quality (probably not as much as pastes, though).
 
richmondesi said:
While I'm not Bart, I'll offer that my experience mirrors yours. However, I've been pretty impressed by one maker's synthetic linen as well. I'm not sure if there's an appreciable difference in the performance of either, but I enjoy the process much more with the TM linen. :)

I will say that the linen certainly appears to have an abrasive quality (probably not as much as pastes, though).

thanxs for reply and any one else for that matter . yes the linen must have some abrasive ness while not as a brasive as paste.It certanly makes a differance i wopuld'nt be with out it. i supose if you were finishing on paste or say a 12k manmade stone then just leather would be fine. but coming of of coticule linen or a good canvas would be needed in my experiances. my old mate who was a barber and his dad before him .he is now 80 years old and i was speaking to him yesterday infact . he said they used coticule and they used canvas to bring the edge up along with some red rouge also then leather . i actauly saw the coticule they used and believe me it was concaved and down to the slate nearly. jim said it was all they ever used. the hone they used he said it generated slurry just by honing so it must of been softer one. the towel it was rapped in was coverd in dry slurry. sorry changing subject.

cheers gary
 
Same goes for me with the canvas, I still use my high end herring bone weaved Dovo, and find that both after the hone and before the shave it improves the edge for sure Gary, I have heard that some people dont use cloth at all, how they get shaves as smooth as we do I dont know?

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
De gustibus and all that. I used to have a TM strop, and I absolutely, positively hated the linen, both in terms of feedback and sound. I really quite like the cotton weave that can be ordered with SRD strops. Personally, I use their webbed fabric - ugly as sin, but if offers terrific feedback, and apparently works well. At least I cannot see any difference between it and linen/cotton.

As an aside, the good people at The Different Scent still offer their - otherwise utterly fantastic - strop without linen component, because they have not been able to find a source for suitable linen. Seems like getting this right is not as easy as it looks.

Regards,
Robin
 
my tm linen is very soft. tm cotton sounds more abrasive with a zipping sound which i don't care for i have also compared the two and linen performed better for me. , i never tryed srd webbed fabric , i take it thats the one that looks like car seat belt. i've compared the hht hair test coming of differant linen and the tm linen worked very well along with the dovo cotton.i actauly had a razor honed by a chap and i no he only uses leather . when i stropped on linen then leather there was a big differance in the way the hht reacted. i'm not saying the shave would of been any better . i just use this as a good indicator. I will only test shave a razor when i'm getting a very good hht. this way i no the razor will shave for sure.i use same bunch of hairs to jugde my edges.
 
Well, I managed to score some linen on the cheap on a local market. Funnily enough the vendor shaves with straights as well, as I found out. Pretty positive impact on the price, thankfully. I'll try to find my mother's sewing machine and fix it to one of my SRD strops. If it works, it will be a very cheap alternative.
 
Hi!
I use vintage linen and cotton. The linen I have is thick and nice but when I wound up with a soft cotton from a vintage Japanese strop I've just about stopped using anything else. I like the suppleness and medium feedback from it. Maybe I like it since I use it rather slack.

I have also played around with preparing cottons with good results (but loud...:thumbdown: ), trying to get that "silk finish".

But what I wanted to add was that I have some 3" herringbone weave linen, very soft, a couple different grades (bleached and natural) 65mm heavier (like vintage weight, not tubular) linen, and some 65mm hemp (ugly but gives excellent improvement). I would be glad to make some strops and bring them to the weekend if anyone needed a cloth component. If someone's interested tell me, I would just like to cover the cost of the material.

Robin, if you are not coming to the weekend and would like one, send me an email.

regards,
Torolf


Here's a picture of the 3" linen:


Linen3inch.JPG
 
Torolf,

You have an email - thanks a million in advance!

Just a quick update: Mother's sewing machine is no longer with us (apparently, the movers mistook it for trash, silly buggers). So, no pictures, because the result looks like the proverbial brown stuff. But... it works! The linen is coarse and fraying at the edges, of course, but I simply punched six holes into it with hole punch, and replaced the webbed fabric on my SRD Premium IV. Touched up an old no-name Solingen razor, stropped on linen (100 for good measure...) and 30 on leather. Very, very nice.

Not bad for a €1 investment, I'd say :)

Regards,
Robin
 
Hello,

I´m looking for a source that sells suitable linen (or hemp would be great, too) to play around with. I looks like there is literally no place that sells such stuff. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tok
 
As I said, 'Well, I managed to score some linen on the cheap on a local market'. An artisan shop was selling it there. I have seen similar market stalls all over Europe. The big advantage being that you can actually test the quality (as opposed to shopping online).

Happy hunting,
Robin
 
Ive tried 3 different canvas/linen/cotton (how do you tell the difference?) on vintage strops. The best one Ive found for use though is a hemp (canvas I guess?) belt that went on some shorts I own. It has a metal hook at the bottom just like a normal strop. It is very soft and has little feedback. The cloth components on my vintage strops are very hard and abrasive feeling. Ive used my belt canvas for a year and it is black from all the razors. So there must be some abrasive action going on.
 
Here we go, my pimped SRD Premium IV (killer strop, but I really hate the feedback from that webbed fabric).





More here.

Thanks a million, Torolf!
Robin
 
You should will Torolf to make one for you, too. then magically attach it to the backside of the OT strop. Killer setup, although the leather on the P IV is now similar, but the strop is 3" wide, which I like a lot.

Regards,
Robin
 
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