Thread: Both sides of the hide?

Brian,
I have one myself with the same diamond pattern but know nothing abiout the "why" of the design.

I did just reply in another thread about texture in strops....effective or marketing?

The raised nibbs, bumps, pebbles, cuts, etc....do have the effect of slowing or interfering with the razors movement across the strop making it feel like there is more resisitance or draw. But, all of the nibbs, bumps, etc... reduce the contact area between razor and leather so they should effectively reduce the friction between razor and steel. I guess it's a toss up whther the effect of the bumps is canceled out by the reduced area or not.

When we buy or restore a strop we are concerned with having a flat, smooth, 100% contact patch across the entire blade, when we speak of texture strops we are reducing this contact patch by maybe 50% or more depending on the nature of the textured surface.

As a stretch on this idea does a bald tire have more friction against the road or less? If less why does a drag racer choose a slick tire? On a lapstrake constructed boat (boards lapped clapboard fashion), does it have more friction or less in the water than a smooth hulled boat? Sitting still it has more surface area as every ridge contacts water, at speed the water passes over the ridges leaving a wake of bubbles in the lapps reducing contact and friction. How about a golf ball with all the dimples?

Any thoughts? ( I obviously had plenty of time to think crazy thoughts while on vacation but not enough time to come to any conclusions <g>)

Tony

[quote=Tony Miller;120261]Brian,
I have one myself with the same diamond pattern but know nothing abiout the "why" of the design.

As a stretch on this idea does a bald tire have more friction against the road or less? If less why does a drag racer choose a slick tire? On a lapstrake constructed boat (boards lapped clapboard fashion), does it have more friction or less in the water than a smooth hulled boat? Sitting still it has more surface area as every ridge contacts water, at speed the water passes over the ridges leaving a wake of bubbles in the lapps reducing contact and friction. How about a golf ball with all the dimples?

Any thoughts? ( I obviously had plenty of time to think crazy thoughts while on vacation but not enough time to come to any conclusions <g>)

Tony[/quote

At last, a boat analogy Problem is I can't elaborate on that ,Tony said it all.

PuFF

Puff,
I thought of you when I typed that one! I was a real wooden boat fiend way back in the day.

Tony

Hmmmm... You got me thinking. To quote Hand American,

"This gave the leather a robust red color and a distinctive minty odor. In addition, if the tannery found that the finished hide was too smooth to be effective as a strop, patterns were embossed in the grain to increase the drag of the hide. A diamond pattern similar to ours was often used."


The Russian I have has this diamond pattern, but each little diamond summit has a bit of an unfinished look/feel to it. Just a tad unfinished by comparison to the finished side.

I'm thinking that the overall effect on the blade by comparison would be like the difference between course and fine sandpaper. The patterned side does have more drag than the finished side. It might also have served to reduce stropping time (for the barber)?

BTH88,
A good example of a "modern" Russian strop would be the Illinois #827. On this one the working side is the reverse, flesh side of the beast and the back side is filled with small ridges left by an embossing/rolling process used to compress the leather. The front looks like compressed terrycloth. On a good example it works very well, on others it deteriorates into a wolley mess then a pumice stone can be used to get the texture desired.

Dovo and jemico both make a Russian strop that is a reddish color but no indication of other differences. Jemico did make a very small pebble grain model, also a deep red in color that was very hard surfaced and quite effective.

Tony

My homemade oak tanned cowhide strop works on both the finished and unfinished sides really well. To Tony's point, the unfinished side actually strops "faster" than the finished side (less resistence and smoother). This is probably due to both the smooth leather having more contact area and I also added a thin dressing of mink oil which adds drag. I enjoy using both sides and haven't yet figured out what finishing qualities are added by the separate sides.

Dewey

I think the "faster" you mentioned is the real advantage of the reverse side. I have found it makes a nice substitute for linen. I think Chris Moss on SMF is a big fan of preliminary stropping on rough leather and finishing on smooth leather and his suggestions spurred me to look at offereing my rough leather once again.

Tony