This is the strop Mastro Livi uses to strop his razors....
Printable View
This is the strop Mastro Livi uses to strop his razors....
Another challenge for Tony... Speaking of which, Tony, could you do one in bright yellow? :D
Get 'em now boys because after this thread, loom strop prices are going through the roof :roflmao
Love the yellow :D
This thing is huge. I am surprised to see the width too. I guess the Mastro doesn't like to X?
Cheers
Ivo
The yellow is due to the cadmium used in the tannery to treat the leather, mastro Livi choosed his hides from a local tannery, he says it's getting pretty difficult finding the right leather for the strop.
Looks like the one Lynn has on his DVD
Not hard to imagine as the use of cadmium (being very toxic) is being restricted more and more in the EU.Quote:
Originally Posted by vschwager
WOW, that is a strop! Vincent, where did you get the picture? Kees is right, cadmium is a heavy metal and as such is considered a bad actor in chemistry circles. I wonder what it does to leather that makes Livi like leather tanned with it? Anyway, he needs to be careful. Mercury salts were used in England a couple of centuries ago to stiffen the ribbons used in making hats and the result was "mad hatters" syndrome!
Hello Rgdominguez!
I took the picture at the Novegro Knife fair in Milan, last November. Mastro Livi had a stand there and was showing people how to strop his razors after putting an edge on some blades he brought over as demo.
I think cadmium is probably still widely used in tanneries around Italy, I am not sure whether a substitute for it has been found; they were using it heavily in the Tannery triangle around Pisa when I used to work there...long story. It would be nice if they had acutally gotten rid of it, but I am not sure.
By the way, Mastro Livi buys the lather already processed from the tannery, he does not get mixed up with the cadmium directly, but I cannot recall why he looks for certain pieces of leather over others, he told me that it is getting increasingly difficult for him to find the right type.
Isn't cadmium used more as a pigment in general? Was it used in the leather industry to produce a yellow leather or for some other reason?
I'd have thought it's use would be very limited in western countries now due to all the regulations concerning heavy metals and their salts? I'm sure you'd still find it in many Asian tanneries as they often don't give a damn. Even then I'd have thought it would be cheaper to use veg or chrome tanning?
Hello
I don't think the cadmium was used merely to pigment the leather yellow, due to its heavy use I am sure that it must have played a more active role during the whole tanning process, it was probably used to "prepare" the leather for further treatment, but I am not really sure of why and how...
I would like to find out though, I might ask the maestro himself...
Cheers
Yes, it would be interesting to know why it was/is used and how the leather compares to other methods of tanning.
vschwager, I would also be interested to know what the Maestro uses to hone his blades. Does he like a particular stone or set of stones etc.? Perhaps pasted strops? It would be nice to know.
Regards,
EL
Hello
I have seen Mastro Livi use the following
Corundum (hardest waterstone, Mastro Livi uses it to prepare the blade and establish an initial bevel)
300 grit strone
1000 grit
3000 grit
Belgian Cuticle
Arkansas
then he finishes off using the Monstre Strop, where he has applied stropping paste onto the canvas side of the strop. Hard to believe, at the very end and before stropping, he passes the blade onto his nail lightly to remove any burr left - however the man is a virtuoso honer, he has a feel for the material which I cannot ever hope to match, it's as if the steel is talking to him...
This is what I have seen him do. He also uses an old rag (a piece of old jeans fabric) to see if there is any burr onto the blade, if there is the blade cuts into the fabric, if there isn't, then the blade has no burr left and is ready for the subsequent stage.
in the end, Mastro Livi knows a trick or two on how to get an edge on any blade, and knows exactly where any blade stands as to grinding/honing.
Cheers