Japanese Linen/Cotton Stropping Board

Recently I was having coffee with another member here, lilrascal, and he showed me a variant on a Japanese Linen (Sail Cloth) stropping board.

So I decided to make one as well, and he was kind enough to provide the cloth and crox crayon. It's still in construction so I thought I'd share.

I've also attached the .PDF file, "Honing Razors and Nihonkamisori" by Jim Rion. The section on building one of these is in Section 8 and 9.

I took a solid board, and wrapped the sail cloth / linen tightly around the board, then stapled it securely.

I then wetted down all the linen, and washed the surface with some shaving soap and rinsed. I let it dry for a day, or until thoroughly dried, in order to shrink the cloth to the board.

I then sanded down the surface of the cloth, rinsed thoroughly, washed again, again allowing this to dry.

When this is completed, I will use diagonal "X" strokes with the crox crayon, evenly placed down the board, the idea is to use it sparingly.

This seems a great way to bring back a razor, and more importantly, it's fun.:D

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Actually you make the board longer and wider and lose the CrO and you have bagel boards. Every bagel baker has them to bake authentic bagels on.

I have tried paddle and cloth with .5 micron cerium oxide called "Yellow Bar"applied to the cloth [bluejean material] .

There is also .3 micron powder called "super cerium" and it is a very white powder.

Those of us who have been around awhile might remember that Lynn A. used yellow bar on the linen side of the strop years ago. Old timey barbers also used blackboard chalk on the linen side. I still use chalk on one particular strop that I like.
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