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loom strop loose or tight?

stalker

Well-Known Member
hello friends! how i can boost the maximun keenness and smoothness on my loom strop?

i should set it tight or loose? there's really much difference?

thanks
 
Well, since the average blade has edge angle of 17°... Seriously (well, that was actually serious), I have found that strops tend to have a sweet spot. Not my idea, but Bart's. Incidentally, it is not the same on all strops, not least because they vary in length, obviously. Trial and error - there is no single edge that pleases everyone, not even on the same model of razors.

Regards,
Robin
 
The idea of a loom strop is to start fairly tight. If the razor is well honed, it will respond well to a very taut pasted strop.
As tight as it may be, the strop will make your edge ever so slightly convex. This is fine, and the whole idea behind the efficiency of pasted stropping.
You can use the loom strop to maintain your edge. As the earliest sings of sharpness decline, perform 10 laps on the pasted strop. If the next shave is good, just revert to your regular routine of stropping on linen and clean leather before each shave.
But if the next shave did not offer the full improvement, repeat the pasted procedure, 15 laps this time.
Many shaves later, after several of these kind of touch-ups, you'll notice that the pasted strop seems to loose it's "magic". That happens because the edge slowly becomes more convex with each use of the pasted strop. Now is the time to go to a slightly setting of the strop, so that it is capable to make the edge a tiny bit more convex. Again, you will be able to get more shaves on the counter and do a couple of extra touch-ups. Each time the strop fails, loosen it a bit. Eventually, the edge will be so convexed that it will pull at the whiskers, regardless the amount of pasted stropping.
If you go careful, it is perfectly possible to keep one single razor going for 6 months of daily shaves this way.
I don't do this myself anymore, because I prefer to touch up on a Coticule, but I have several returning "customers" (the quotes are in place because they don't have to pay for my sharpening services) that use exactly that approach for keeping their razor(s) going.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
no bart, i don't use the paste because my dilucot is improved,(hht3-4 generally before polishing) i only use the loom strop after the coticule, how i can set it to give at the edge a slight smoothness? loose or tight? i only have a loom strop...
 
In that case, go with Robin's advice.

BeBerlin said:
Strops tend to have a sweet spot. Incidentally, it is not the same on all strops, not least because they vary in length, obviously. Trial and error

One of the advantages of hanging strops for clean leather stropping, is that with some experience, you'll almost automatically find that sweet spot of tension and pressure for any given razor. On a loom strop, it won't be so easy for the sake of maximizing the outcome of clean leather stropping.

I can't advice out of personal experience, because I've only used loom strops for pasted stropping, which is an entirely different matter. Nonetheless, I would start with a fairly loose setting and gentile pressure on the razor. Try to have have a good balance between the spine and the edge, ever so slightly favoring the spine. That keeps the deflection mainly under the spine, and at the same time assures you of good contact. There is a certain feel in the fingers that hold the razor when all parameters are working together of perfect edge alignment. While figuring this all out, it certainly pays to rely on some kind of test to assess the results. Both the TPT or the HHT can be put to good use for edge probing off the strop.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
for GARY : why the green side should boost the sharpness ? this green paste is 0.5 micron as coticule on water
 
the green paste can be used to smooth an edge and also makes up for any sligh keeness you carn't get out of your hone. say for example i hone on coticule . the shave is ok but not quite there. just 10 to 20 laps on geen paste can get you there very easily. You normaly see a better hht also. this can be acheived of coticule but takes more practice. there is times when i use ti rasoir paste, i try not to,but it does work when i'm not quite there, also diamond sprya or cro.ox , also red dovo is used by a sharpening company after there coticules have honed the razor. i think dovo do this also to their razors. i went trough a stage where my razors wern't smooth of coticule . the reason being they just wern't quite sharpenough, once ther sharp the shave will be smooth. i personaly think you carn't beat a proper strop/linen , it seems to me you can get a nice stroke going .Coticule on water seems to only have so much refine mant . if coti with water is'nt working, you need to drop back to light slurry mode and then proceed back to water.

gary
 
garyhaywood said:
if coti with water is'nt working, you need to drop back to light slurry mode and then proceed back to water.

gary
That is perfect advice. :thumbup:

Cheers,
Bart.
 
bart lets say your razor is not quite there after 100 laps on coticule with water. You do another 100 and still not quite there. is there a maximun amount of laps you will try to improve . if so how many laps on water would you try untill you had to drop back to say a couple of rubs on slurry mode.. i would of thought if 200 laps hav'nt had any improvemant on water that would mean you need to add a little slurry . would a couple of rubs ie a very misty slurry actauly do any thing? would it cut ever so slightly?
gary
 
I give it two lots of 30 then if it's not right I do a set of 30 half strokes, and another 30 regular, if that fails I do 2 sets of halfstrokes followed by 60 regular, and finally if I am still not happy I go back to a couple of rubs withs the slurry stone, about 4 dilutions with 20 half strokes, and finish on water with 1 set of half strokes and 30 regular x strokes, if that don't do it I roll a smoke and put the kettle on! hahaha

Seriously it only takes a few minutes and rarely fails

Best regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
One or two rubs with the slurry stone, definitely alters the abrasiveness of a Coticule. But so does the increased pressure of halfstrokes on water, as opposed to regular X-strokes.

I don't always do the same, if the edge isn't right there after finishing. One of the first things I'll try is doing a few sets of halfstrokes on clear water. If I see the evidence of steel removal in the water, I might lower the number of laps per set, e.g. 5 sets of 4 halfstrokes. If I don't see any steel entering the water, I'm more inclined to rub with the slurry stone.

Usually, it doesn't take long before I have an edge where I like it. Often it's there right after the normal procedure. I think patient dilution is very important, and the further in the procedure the more patient I become. :)

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Hi Bart,

When I use my relatively hard La Verte... then two or even four rubs don't give any signs of misty slurry. Please tell me, when you do one or two rubs on your coticule, then did you actually see that water turns lightly misty or not?

Thanks,
Urmas
 
urmas said:
Hi Bart,

When I use my relatively hard La Verte... then two or even four rubs don't give any signs of misty slurry. Please tell me, when you do one or two rubs on your coticule, then did you actually see that water turns lightly misty or not?

Thanks,
Urmas
I have a le verte too and I have to say that it besides being a very slow stone it also releases slurry very slow. what I do is I tilt the slurry stone so only the edge has contact with the stone and then I releases the slurry easier but still slow

hope this helps

cheers
Stijn
 
Bart said:
Usually, it doesn't take long before I have an edge where I like it. Often it's there right after the normal procedure. I think patient dilution is very important, and the further in the procedure the more patient I become. :)

Sage like wisdom there I believe

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
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