Thread: Need help

ZY stop? Made in China, I'm fairly sure by the same folks that make (or at least sell? Gold Dollar and ZY razors. Never used one, but if it's a soft smooth leather it should get the job done.

its smooth ish

It doesn’t look like leather to me. Start out with a Whipped Dog poor man’s strop until you learn and don’t nick it up, then a Tony Miller or Kanoyama.

If its real leather it will do fine as long as its smooth, not creased and no bumps. ZY strop? Boy they are out to get all parts of the shaving community ain't they. So go slow on your strop and no pressure pushing down. Read about stropping and watch some vids. It will help. Remember speed comes with time. Some enjoy going slow.

Yea, it will work. You can strop on paper, wood, cloth, nylon, polyester or any smooth leather and it will polish the bevel and edge.

Better quality leather (smoother, cleaner) will polish better, but only if you have mastered stropping. It can take about a year to get to the point where you are consistently improving an edge. Until that time, the quality and or price of the strop will not make much of a difference.

Make sure the strop surface is smooth, if not you can scrape it with a card file or a large flat sharp knife with the blade 90 degrees to the strop. This will smooth the leather and leave a smooth suede type finish on leather.

As said go slow and use light pressure. You cannot see the actual shaving edge, even at 400X magnification, it is easy to break off the shaving edge.

Originally Posted by corybrett

its smooth ish

I was trying to find a good thread I found on strop preparation, but I couldn't so...from memory a few things you can do to improve the feel of your strop:

Mink oil (or a similar oil). I've used ballistol too. Put a light coating on, work it in, and let the leather soak it up. Leather like a little oil now and then, just don't leave it sopping.

If the surface is a little rough or grainy, you can wrap some 600 grit sandpaper around a glass bottle and wet sand the surface. I do this as a break in for new strops using a light coating of shaving lather, so far I'm satisfied with the results. It doesn't take a lot, you just want to skim the surface and smooth it up a bit.

Just working the leather a bit with your hands can go a long way to softening it.