Thread: Strop

Just started shaving with an SR was wondering what the most common weight of cotton duck to make a strop out of

Welcome to the group. Posting you basic location could help you a lot as you might live next to one of us and can get you personal help.
Most strops have a secondary piece that is made of Linen. This is a slightly course material that is also a wee bit soft after some use. The Secondary strop (Leather being the main strop component) is used to clean the bevel/edge of micro-rust, Soap and the such before going to a Leather strop.

You can buy a beginners strop that will have both pieces and all the hardware for a decent price and not have to make one out of the wrong material. Contact Tony Miller of the Heirloom Razor Strop Co. He can fix you up.
If you insist in making one a clean piece of jean material will work. Some will use newspaper and a leather belt.
We are happy to help you along this journey of learning the SR shave. Remember it takes a few months to learn to SR shave properly and a pro-Honed Razor is always recommended when learning. Let us know about your equipment. Post pics in the Shave of the Day. Welcome and feel at home here.

Originally Posted by Cattleman02

Just started shaving with an SR was wondering what the most common weight of cotton duck to make a strop out of

Cotton duck is not commonly used to make serious strops. If you want to DIY a strop, I suggest that you get a 72" x 3" strip of veg tanned 8 to 10oz cowhide from McMaster-Carr. That will make two strops so you will have a backup, or one to barter for other shave goodies. Thinner leather is okay, down to about 6oz but 8 to 10oz is most commonly used by DIYers. You will want, for each strop, two bolster pieces 5" to 6" long. These go through the D ring and the ends fold down onto front and back of the strop body. Usually, Chicago screws are used, three per end, to secure bolsters to body. It is also possible to saddle stitch it together but then if you end up with cupping, you can't adjust easily. Anyway, what is left out of a 36" piece is then your strop body. There will of course be about 3/4" to 1" overlap so subtract that times two from the body length to get your usable length. Longer is okay. Shorter is "sort of" okay. You can heat some beef tallow or beeswax or both, and mix in some neats foot oil, for treating the leather. Don't bother with mink oil or other stuff. This isn't a pair of boots, it's a razor strop. The prepared treatment compound should be barely liquid. Drip a few drops, no more, on the palm of your hand and rub it around, then briskly rub the strop. That's all the treatment it should need and TBH it really probably doesn't even need that. over-oiling is a very common mistake. Repeat the treatment a couple times a year and use the strop regularly and it will stay supple pretty much forever.

The best cloth component is good flax linen, though you can use seat belt, fire hose, whatever, in a pinch. Me, I do not bother with a secondary component at all and if I did, it would not be attached to the leather. A simple leather strop with a D ring on each end is versatile. If you nick one edge, which you will most likely do while learning, you simply hang it from the other D ring and now the nicks are on the left hand edge. Cupping can be corrected by slightly enlarging the two side holes at each end, leaving the center ones alone, if simply rubbing it with cupped hand doesn't do the trick. My view is that linen can do nothing that the leather alone cannot do. If you attach a fiber component, then reversing the strop is awkward. Best to have the cloth component separate if you want one.

D rings of sufficient size can be hard to source. Try a saddlery or saddle supply firm, or make your own, either milled out whole, or bent and welded from SS rod. If you find some you like for a good price but they are not wide enough, you can notch the bolster pieces to fit, but don't go less than 2" inside width. 416 stainless steel is very corrosion resistant and you can make some nice ones out of 1/8" to 3/16" plate. Or brass, which you can nickel plate if you like. Youtube is your friend.

You COULD use a simple fold-over method, i.e. stick the strop body through the D ring and secure the end to itself, but I very much prefer conventional bolster construction.

You should be able to make a pair of usable strops for under $50. A decent entry level strop costs about that, for one. So yeah you can save money, especially if you get a sweet deal on the D rings. Don't bother with swivelly hooky hardware. Keep it simple. For a SUPER basic strop, just fold the end over and saddle stitch it with no D rings, cut two holes an inch apart straddling the centerline, and install two grommets. Tie a loop of parachute cord between them and bobs yer uncle, This is similar to Larry's "Poor Man" strop, at www.whippeddog.com. You are likely to destroy your first strop while learning, so there is something to be said for going cheap, just not Chinese/Pakistani ebay or aliexpress cheap. Then, upgrade when you are more skilled and confident to something nicer. Tony Miller at Heirloom Strops is a popular seller and a good guy to do business with. You might look him up and see if he has any inexpensive entry level strops on hand. For most strops he sells, he can make you a replacement body in case yours somehow gets mysterious nicks and slashes in it. An Illinois strop is also okay for a beginner strop. Vintage is okay if it is not cracked or hardened or all cut up. A real basket case from fleabay could be a good source for your D rings and chicago screws, too. Keep an eye on the Buy/Sell/Trade subforum as well. You never know when a member will decide he has "too much" shave stuff.

The last stuff I bought was hemp webbing, it works like a charm, both the herring bone pattern and the straight weave.

I primarily use Lipshaw Microtomes for stropping multiple Lips and I try all kinds of leathers , felts ,cloths.

I want to try Bakers Couche Cloth its got a nice weave got to figure out a backing.
All for the sake of science.

I will send you a nylon fire hose for the lip when I get back to that stuff, Darl. I have some roo to try, but feel it needs some sort of backer too.
What size grommets are you using there?

I use these they work real nice. I found pressing them upside-down gets a better crimp



I also went all out since I have 5 Lipshaws it made sense to buy a serious press.

We need a lip thread. This one has been hijacked!