Thread: Linen, Leather and The Rest Of The Story

Well I talked to an old timer the other day, and one thing lead to another. As a young boy he worked at one of the last full time saddle manufacturers back in the 20's. A side line for the company was strop making. Talking straight razors I learned some interesting things about strops. He told me from the moment you put your razor away until the next time you use it, the metal begins to corrode. A combination of soap, water, air quality, body oils and salts lead to immediate corrosion on the delicate edge of a carbon steel blade. The linen side of a strop removes this corrosion and the leather side re-polishes the delicate edge. No more, no less. He said this business about aligning teeth wasn't true on razors. Knives maybe, but not straights. The surface area is too microscopic to have teeth sticking out like a snaggle-tooth hillbilly (his words). At least, according to him, these teeth would be so small that it wouldn't be affected by linen and leather and that daily stropping would metal fatigue them in no time. He said, too, that if these teeth were indeed on a razor, it would shred the linen into a wooly mess, and turn a smooth strop into suede on the first passes. Also, he said that "Russian leather" strops were developed to act as both linen and leather. Because the Russian strops were rougher, they could remove corrosion and polish at the same time. Anyway, just another take on the subject. Makes more sense to me than the "butcher's steel" analogy.

OK, that is the most sensible talk about strops I have ever heard... I agree with everything the old chap said, and thank him enormously for that. Also, thank you for sharing the story, yul b. nekst

Nenad

Makes sense to me as well, especially on the roughness of the Russian leather working much like Linen. I think Dr. Moss on SMF is a big fan of stropping on an Illinois #827 Russian before moving onto a smoother strop to finish. I don't recall him ever mentioning using linen.

The serration thing though is where we may differ though. No matter how fine the abrasive one never has a perfectly smooth edge. If perfect the intersection where the two perfectly smooth planes meet (the edge) would be perfectly smooth too BUT, the planes are never perfectly smooth. They have tiny scratches from the abrasive contact and these fine scratches would not meet evenly and smoothly at the edge leaving tiny little ridges on serrations. No matter how small they are still there.

Tony

Thanks for sharing the info, yul!

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

The serration thing though is where we may differ though. No matter how fine the abrasive one never has a perfectly smooth edge. If perfect the intersection where the two perfectly smooth planes meet (the edge) would be perfectly smooth too BUT, the planes are never perfectly smooth. They have tiny scratches from the abrasive contact and these fine scratches would not meet evenly and smoothly at the edge leaving tiny little ridges on serrations. No matter how small they are still there.

X-actly!!!

Thank you very much for sharing this!

I am certainly on board for the oxidation and linen.

Now, I do believe that there are teeth, even though they are very small. And if he doesn't believe in edge re-alignment - that's up to him but I do know the difference when I strop mid-shave. There is not too much time for new oxidation, and the improved feel is purely because the teeth might get a bit rough when cutting tough beard.

One more point on Russian leather - I have different types of it. E.g. My Dubl Duck is a bit rough / textured. On the other hand, I have another strop, which is much smoother. Both work well. The DD came with its own linen (and this is the rough-er) type so I do believe Russian type was not intended for use without linen.

Just another data point (tribute to Ed / ForestryProf)

Cheers
Ivo

On the teeth part again... Not only do I agree that the teeth are there but there is also the free carbides in the steel making the edge "Uneven" as to form teeth. Some steels have larger carbides than others, the finer the carbide the finer the edge can get.

This is just my understanding on all this. This is info I've collected from kitchen knives of various makers. It is amazing how much sharpening, honeing, and polishing all comes together with the two different "knife" styles. A razor is still a knife, just a very specialized one

my .02 worth

based on the limited effect I get from stropping that wouldn't surprise me a bit . . . I think that snaggle tooth hillbilly thing is waaaaaay out of line, just because I move out to the country . . .

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

based on the limited effect I get from stropping . . .

HERESY!!! HERESY!!!

Cheers
Ivo

Just because a guy works at the GM plant assembling Chevy's doesn't make him an authority on automotive powerplants. I'm sure they guy knows a good saddle from a bad one and I'll talk to him when I buy a new horse.