Thread: Thebigspendurs Weekly Shaving Brainbuster #9

Hello shaving fiends

Well, Festus returned home this week. It turns out he had gone to Mexicali with Lulu Belle and was sleeping in the street with her and the local police arrested him and threw him in jail for vagrancy. He was released after a day or two but unfortunately Lulu Belle became a dish at the local chic Mexican Restaurant. Festus was beside himself losing his best friend in the whole wide world (if you know what I mean).

So, Cletus and I decided, to cheer him up we would go and buy him a new strop since he was using a piece of balsa wood with some Comet scouring powder on it.
So we packed up the 56 Chevy Apache and headed into town. I told Cletus we should buy a new strop from one of the fine vendors at SRP and he wanted a vintage one and we got into an argument and he left me stranded and I had to walk the 30 miles back to the ranch but I got even the next day because he saddled up old Diablo for a ride and I put a burr under the saddle and Diablo threw Cletus into next Sunday.

After a few stitches Cletus was as right as rain and considered us to be even.

He decided that last week he ran over a Raccoon and after taking the pelt he said he would tan it by urinating on it and then he would turn it into a strop for Festus. I told him it was too small and Raccoon wouldn’t make a good stropping medium. He got mad and threw me out of the house and had flattened all 4 tires on my 58 Ford Station wagon.

I’ll get even with him.

So the question for this week’s shaving brainbuster will require you to answer a few questions.
1-Do you think Raccoon will make a good strop? Heck if it does will any critter do?
2-Will it be too small at about 10 inches long? How long does a strop have to be?
3-Are you joshing me about urinating on the pelt to tan it?

So put your responses in a stamped self addressed envelope and mail them to the shaving brainbuster Grand Central Station Track 96 cistern 5 New York, New York and my friends Ben and Willard will be standing by to either judge them or eat them.

Be sure to check back on Wednesday for the answers so astounding an insane man wouldn’t believe them.

I would have used the raccoon's hairs to make a brush. Use its skin for a paddle strop, boil some of its fat, add potash and the contents of its musk gland and you'll have a nice shaving cream. Sharpen one of its pelvic bones on a smooth rock and you can give him a good shave. Although higly unlikely Festus may develop some razor burn and rash. Use some of its remaining fat as an A/S cream.

Source: "1001 uses of a dead raccoon" by Y.T.

1 -If properly tanned, yes raccoon would work, or any other tanned hides for that matter. In this case you would probably need to make a paddle strop out of it as the leather would be rather thin and would benefit in some additional stability

2-some of the old paddle strops aren't much longer, so I would say yes it would work if you didn't have anything else

3- yes and no. while urinating on it once would not do much. Some plains indians tribes did use urine to break up the protein fibers to make the leather more pliable by soaking it in urine. however they still used fats and brains to make it soft. The ammonia in the urine also served as a bleach.

You got me going to the kitchen to get the comet for the balsa I just bought at the hobby store but I'll be damned if I'm going to urinate on my SRD Premium 1. I'm sure if that was advisable Lynn and Don would have already done so before they sent it out.

My revisor paddle strop is probably about 8 inches, so SOME people think bigger doesn't necessarily mean better.

And I reckon that any hide that's smooth and solid would work for a stop.

As for urine? Welll..either urine or you're out, and I'm out of this one...

So the answer for today is as follows.

Probably for a paddle strop it would work. The size isn't the issue with the hanging strop its the thickness of the hide. As long as you had some good clear area in the hide so it could be properly tanned it should work. I've used all kinds of critters for strops though admittedly much larger animals and they all work well.

As far as the urine goes for tanning yes you could use that along with many other things.

So if you got it right step up and claim your appause from the troops.

Be sure to stop by for next's weeks shaving brainbuster. I have a real treat in store for all of you especially if your good in math. Har Har. I've alread had Cletus try it out and he said it was too easy.

Whoo hoo I got it right for once LOL

These stories are some real funny stuff. Please keep up the good work.
I hope Cletus has more exciting adventures.

Originally Posted by turbine712

These stories are some real funny stuff. Please keep up the good work.
I hope Cletus has more exciting adventures.

You don't know the half of them. Har Har

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Be sure to stop by for next's weeks shaving brainbuster. I have a real treat in store for all of you especially if your good in math. Har Har. I've alread had Cletus try it out and he said it was too easy.

Cletus cheats at math and the reason is that he's got 11 toes, so he's going in with a slight advantage when it gets into the high numbers and he's got to take his shoes off to count that high.