Linen Strop break in

I just recently bought a new Illinois #361 strop. When I received it, the leather and linen were both on the stiff side. Anticipating this I also bought some Fromm strop dressing. The dressing has worked wonders for the leather; as it should. Although I would like the linen to be on the softer side. What could I do to soften the linen. When I tried stropping the blade seem to just glide over the fabric and not become engaged by it. That was probably due to the stiffness of the linen. If any one can help I would be grateful.

My (only) strop is an Illinois #361. My recommendation is to simply use the linen strop! The stiffness will be worked out of it with use, and the surface will become a little softer. I find the "linen finish" (I think that it's heavy cotton canvas that has been treated with a sizing) strop to be indispensable. As in, I have used only the linen and leather of my 361 to maintain my razor for almost four years now without honing on anything else.

I am not trying to get the linen to turn into silk. I just don't think the linen is doing anything when it is so starchy feeling. It sounds wrong when I use it for stropping. I have watched many stropping videos and there strops didn't sound like hard sand papery scraping . I understand that everything will brake in over time, but the hardness of the linen seems unusable.

Plus 1 with JeffR, I use an Illinois #827 it will take between 50 and 100 sessions to break in the strop depending on the roundness of the spine you are stropping...

BTW it might sound "off" but it is working

I find that if you use the spine of a heavy hunting type knife and run it up and down both the Illinois strop and it's linen in your spare time, you can hasten the break in process. The Illinois strop is one of the stiffest out there when new.

Have fun.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

Plus 1 with JeffR, I use an Illinois #827 it will take between 50 and 100 sessions to break in the strop depending on the roundness of the spine you are stropping...

BTW it might sound "off" but it is working

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Yeah I know, the razor suppose to make an audible sound when you work the razor to the linen. It just the sound different than the other videos I have watched. It sounds more like I'm honing more on rawhide than linen.