Thread: Stropping issues

Jimmy - My towel rack is more or less at waist level. It's one of those super-cool electric heated ones.

Hmmm, I may make myself a linen strop. I have lots of raw fabric (I make most of my clothes) that I could use.

Originally Posted by MistressNomad

JHmmm, I may make myself a linen strop. I have lots of raw fabric (I make most of my clothes) that I could use.

If you do decide to sew your own... I just made a linen one with real belfast linen that I picked up in the cross stich supply aisle of a craft store and I am very pleased with the results. Belfast linen was used in at least some of the vintage linen strops, and my resulting strop material looks and feels very similar to the fabric component of an old strop that I have. My first effort was a hollow tube with a sewn seam, which was good but I found the layers could shift about, causing wrinkling. For my next effort I tried a folded affair with the folded layers bonded to each other with silicone. First I ironed the material where I wanted the folds, then applied small diameter (1/8" maybe) jigzag bead of silicone on one side, spread/smoothed the silicone out into a filmy layer a plastic credit card, then pushed the layers together. The linen was thick enough that the silicone doesn't bleed thru. I then let it sit overnight, then puched a hole at one end and installed a grommet to give it a hanging point. Too easy.