Thread: Limited Financial Resources...

It's also worthwhile to check the following links:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/gener...tml#post427521

and

http://straightrazorpalace.com/newbi...tml#post429734

They'll offer you the possiblity of winning almost everything you need.

Just a thought...

- Mark (S-4-C)

welcome to srp.

if you have experience with and access to leather you most certainly can make your own strop. i'm sure if you do some reading you'll be able to find out what type of leather works better for stropping.

i think people generally like the cheapest badger brush which is made by tweezerman. i'd get that over the cheapest boar brushes.

good soap is very nice, but the $1 williams would be adequate if you want really cheap.

Just wondering, but could I use Jewelers Rouse instead of strop paste?

Originally Posted by Playful

Just wondering, but could I use Jewelers Rouse instead of strop paste?

What would you need strop paste for to begin with? A strop is just a piece of leather. You can use the palm of your hand, newspaper, leather belt, pretty much anything really.

Point is you don't need pastes for regular/daily stropping. Touchups however...

Once again wondering... What is the difference between a leather strop and a canvas strop? Is there a real difference in finished product(edge)? If so, for a newbie, which would you recommend?

Originally Posted by Playful

Once again wondering... What is the difference between a leather strop and a canvas strop? Is there a real difference in finished product(edge)? If so, for a newbie, which would you recommend?

IMHO, the difference is the level of abrasiveness/harshness. And before you start going off to "hone" your razors with a canvas strop, the abrasive level is so small that its not even worth noting. If it exists at all. It could be in my head.

That said, the way I like to look at it is the canvas/linen/cloth side is for "sculpting" the edge or coarse removal of corrosion. The leather side is for smoothing the edge to final...smoothness.

TBH, I am not entirely sure what the heck goes on at the microscopic level. I personally believe stropping removes the corrosion and realigns the edge (similar to a chef's knife steel). Thus, the linen would be for the hard labor, and the leather is for the finishing touches. Yeah, thats my position and I'm going to stick to it.

Originally Posted by Leighton

IMHO, the difference is the level of abrasiveness/harshness. And before you start going off to "hone" your razors with a canvas strop, the abrasive level is so small that its not even worth noting. If it exists at all. It could be in my head.

That said, the way I like to look at it is the canvas/linen/cloth side is for "sculpting" the edge or coarse removal of corrosion. The leather side is for smoothing the edge to final...smoothness.

TBH, I am not entirely sure what the heck goes on at the microscopic level. I personally believe stropping removes the corrosion and realigns the edge (similar to a chef's knife steel). Thus, the linen would be for the hard labor, and the leather is for the finishing touches. Yeah, thats my position and I'm going to stick to it.

i'm not an expert in the field, but iirc, stropping (on anything softer than metal) doesn't remove any particles, simple realigns
and canvas is for finer realignment...

i'm sure the answer is in the wiki (or should be). hopefully an expert will chime in and expose both of our ignorance soon enough!

If you look at the edge with say a 10x loop just before you strop it, you will notice scratches that start from the edge and go back to the end of the bevel. If you then take a look at that same area with a say 60x scope or a 100x scope from Radio Shack, or the Shack as its new name is about to become, those scratches look even deeper. So imagine being able to look at a cross section of the blade in more of a 3 dimensional view. You will soon notice peaks and valleys where those scratches are formed, and they come all the way down to the edge, so now you have high spots and low spots with a microscopically jagged edge.
Now we take that blade and strop it on the leather. What does it do? It actually takes those vertical peaks and starts to flatten them out, somewhat, to bring the jagged edge down to a more smoother junction. This is what sometimes causes micro chipping. Finally the cross section of the blade at the edge would show a more smoother junction of the peaks and valleys thus producing a smoother feel of the blade when you use it.

My 2 cents,

Ray

Probably more information than you wanted to know, but if you've got half an hour to kill and are really interested.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/gener...razor%27s+edge
http://straightrazorpalace.com/razor...straights.html