Thread: strange old strop instuctions

Hi all,

I was at the local fair last night and stopped in at the tool museum building. Then I spied a couple old razor strops hanging on the wall. I noticed that they had some interesting instructions stamped into the leather. So I whipped out my cell phone camera and snapped a couple pics since I thought you guys would be interested. The stamping states "strop lightly on black side finish heavy on this side". That seemed completely backwards to me. I'm thinking the light and heavy must be referring to pressure. Generally, we finish light on stops, hones, etc. NOT heavy!?? Maybe, this was a pasted strop and the black side was coarse?
Anyway, I found it very curious. The leather has a strange texture as you can see in the pictures -- pig skin maybe?

Kinda neat! Sounds like you had a nice time. Just generally doing research on vintage straight instructions I have come across lots of info indicating using a light touch on hones but no indication to do so on strops. Most of what I've come across can be summed up as "apply pressure until you feel a draw". In practice I find a good stropping with pressure, done correctly, provides a very nice shave. The sharper the edge though the lighter the pressure needed to attain that draw.

The pics are very cool!

Ofcourse this could be some vintage reference to number of passes I suppose (though I think your on the right track).

Interesting. I can't tell what my hanging strop says. It's in Russian! Probably something about horsehide.

Well Mike- I'm surprised you didn't generate more interest in this thread. I will say I continue to get my best shaves from stropping using pressure, but we both know I'm in the minority there . . . LOL. Oh well, consider this then a BUMP! HA!

Alan, I havent seen you in a while I tried putting some force this morning on my razor, since it started to go down with sharpness, but I havent noticed significant improvement, maybe slight... But, this razor is creating enormus amounts of drag since I've honed it. It is 6/8, full hollow, extremely narrow bevel, you can hardly see it. It was it's first honing. And it shaved like a dream. Maybe the bevel's width has to do something with the amount of drag...

Nenad

Hey Nenad, hope you are well. I've had some personal difficulties and haven't posted much. I'd say if your getting drag your fine. I start getting less drag after the 5th or 6th shave and keep the blade going by adding pressure. I'm not sure I follow your bevel issues. Its really thin huh? Lots of drag is a really good thing. The whole process changes when you learn how to hone at your level huh? :-)

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

Hey Nenad, hope you are well. I've had some personal difficulties and haven't posted much. I'd say if your getting drag your fine. I start getting less drag after the 5th or 6th shave and keep the blade going by adding pressure. I'm not sure I follow your bevel issues. Its really thin huh? Lots of drag is a really good thing. The whole process changes when you learn how to hone at your level huh? :-)

Alan, I really hope everything is well now.

Yep, the bevel on this razor is really thin, on the middle of the edge is 1/6 of a millimeter. I guess the added drag is from the force concentrated at such small surface. The razor is shaving fine, and yes, I do the same thing, when I notice the edge is loosing it's sharp, I just add a bit of pressure on the strop...

As for the honing thing, well, I hone good enough not to slice my face in pieces, and I still don't use anything finer than the Norton 8000.

Nenad

Originally Posted by dennisthemenace

Interesting. I can't tell what my hanging strop says. It's in Russian! Probably something about horsehide.

Dennisthemenace,
Go to dictionary.com then click on "translator" then select "russian to english" and type in the words on your strop. Maybe this will work...........

Dennis,
I can translate this if you post what it says in Russian. I realize not all the cyrillic characters can be found on your keyboard but some can be approximates with letters that are close.

Thanks,
Tony

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

... I will say I continue to get my best shaves from stropping using pressure . . .

And I most certainly don't! I thought the Wolstenholm wedge I won a few weeks back in Bill's senior members draw would be able to handle a little stropping pressure if anything ncould and ended up knocking the edge off it. Now I get to learn how to hone a wedge.

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