Thread: Both sides of the hide?

Tony and other strop mavens,

Have you ever tried to use the flesh side of the leather as a precursor to finishing on the grain side? I'm curious if it will work at all like the linen member of the strop combo.

Bruce

Depends on the hide and the tanning process used blah blah. I would say that it is used by some for a pre-finish strop like linen but I prefer it for it's ability to hold pastes better.

PuFF

I have a vintage Russian leather strop in great condition. It strops on both sides. One side is a "sharpen" side with a small diamond pattern cut into the hide. The other a "finish". It works great. I'm not for sure if this is how it is supposed to be used. I read this from Hand American's site (http://www.handamerican.com/leatheri...ian%20Style%29).
I'm still waiting to hear other's experiences, if any with the same type of strop.

I have used the flesh side quite often on my own strops and have occasionally offered them for sale. I was thinking of releasing some again as my current supply of Latigo hide would lend itself well for this use. The back must be reasonably firm and of even texture. Not all hides will work, or all sections of each hide. When the surface is right it makes a fine substitute for linen.

In my first year of business one of my most popular sellers was my "Tri Strop". It comprised of leather from an Illinois #127, leather from an Illinois #827 (which is reversed, flesh side leather) and an Illinois Linen all held in a swivel loop. It was very popular but I could not get consistantly good pieces to use. I made my own for a while as special orders and once past the post vacation rush will have a version again.

While the reverse side also works well with pastes I'm not a huge fan of pasted hanging strops as many types of natural leather are prone to cupping and applying water based pastes could make it happen even easier than it does already.

Tony

Tony, any good info on these old Russian's with the diamond pattern on the back (- linen)?

-Brian

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

I lightly rub the flesh sides with a pumice stone before using them. I did this to the strop I bought from Damon, member on this forum and the the wapeinica strop which I bought off of ebay. I cut the linen side off cause it curled up on the edges , smoothed out the flesh side with a stone and it's now a right decent strop.
Ernest

[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)?