Our story continues, as "Lefty" McKensington became a source of much razor misinformation that is with us to this day. Let's take a look, shall we?
Before his "barber's notch bottle opener incedent" he had actualy been a quite skilled barber capable of a BBS shave for even the most wire-bearded of customers, with nary a nick or irritation.
He did invent bay rum aftershave, but was so inebriated at the time, he failed to patent the special blend, and soon enough other establishments began copying his olfactory innovation.
As has been seen, old Lefty had fallen from grace, and had started hitting the sauce pretty hard. He also began putting in a bit too much of the rum in his bay rum aftershave! The stuff was close to 100proof:eek:. He did this to alleviate having to keep track of which bottles were for drinking, and which were for aftershave. He wanted to have swig close at hand, so he made them all high-alcohol content. It was like a giant mojito, except with bay leaves and spices instead of mint. Lefty wasn't too particular by that time...
Well, after a particularly close shave, he was dashing some of his newfangled bay rum on his client, and the fellow about jumped out of his chair. "Gosh-Dangit, Lefty! That stuff about set my face afire!"
"Keep yer shhirt on, young feller....*hic*, it washn't the aftershhhhhhave that gave ya that burning shenshation.. *hic* , take a lookey here....see? That there is a canvas strop, and when I commence to stropping my razooooor on there, it heats the edge, ya see? Friction, my boy, friction....kids today, they jusht don't pay attention.....what was I saying? *hic* Anyhows, that canvas strop heats up the blade so as I can shave ya like a hot knife through buttah, I guess I shoulda let it cool off a touch afore giving you a shave, as you apparently are one of those 'thin skinned' gentlemen, and I musta scalded ya..."
"Did I just see you drink some of my aftershave?" the customer replied, aghast...
So, there you have it, that's where the lie of the canvas strop heating the edge came from originally. Other barbers began to use the excuse as well when they had a customer complain of burning or irritation,and thus it became legend...
You just go and try to find THAT kind of real world info on the Wiki, or search function!:nj