Thread: FCUK - nicked Tony's #1 heirloom quality

So I'm not sure if it's the summer humidity or just hanging in a bathroom for 6 months, but the leather strop I bought from Tony Miller back in February has grown a full half inch longer than the linen back. That, or the linen back has shrunk. The leather used to be able to be pulled taught enough that it about evened out, but over time, it wasn't possible, and there was actually a hump in the leather as I stretched it.

The linen was secured to the leather with 6 screws (3 on either end), and the screws went through holes that did not stretch Laziness prevented me from separating the linen from the leather, and I continued to strop on the leather, until I noticed that I had nicked my leather because of the hump. I nicked it on the side and I nicked it right in the middle of the strop.

This just makes me mad. Do any of you folks have problems with leather stretching or linen shrinking? I'm thinking that the holes in the linen would better be converted to slits, but the leather is so much longer than the linen now, if I tried to turn the holes into slits, they slits would run right off the edge of the linen.

Contact Tony Miller about it. Im not sure if this was an issue with the climate or with the leather, but he will know and he will appreciate you letting him know directly of any issues rather than finding out second hand over the forum.

I do recall a 1 or 2 strops a while back that did have some sort of issue similar to this that Tony deemed as defective in some way, but I am not at all sure if this is the same type of issue. Again best to contact him directly.

You can adjust these strops to some extent by loosening the screws and stretching the strop, but this might be beyond that. Definitely check with Tony--he'll make things right if there's a problem.

Other Josh

I had a similar problem. I believe it's the linen shrinking as opposed to leather stretching. I unscrewed the linen, made small incisions in the holes, put it together again and everything has been fine since.

This is why strops were made in a loop at one end (stitch linen and leather together with the handle set to ride on the linen), this allowed for movement of both leather and linen. Still seems the best way to me. Another method is to just fix the 2 componants toghether at one end only and leave the hand end free. Loop method is best imo.

PuFF

p.s. Sounds like the linen/cotton has shrunk, though mine did stretch on the leather also. Very easy to fix yourself or Tony may do this for you. It in no way affects the quality of his materials or workmanship. We ae dealing with natural materials in what can be adverse conditions.

PuFF

While I and other vendors always prefer hearing of these things directly I did address this a while back here on SRP as well as updated both strops and instructions to make it less an issue.

The newest ones, maybe April on have slotted line which is easily adjusted by loosening the screws, smoothing things out and tightening again. On the ones without slots that did shrink, making a small slit, maybe 1/8" to 3/16" at each end of the line usually fixes the problem. While the leather bow may look significant in most cases the linen has only changed 1/4" or so overall. Humidity can affect this every few months.

Now, if you one of those saddle soaper, linen washer types, all bets are off as the leather and or linen can shrink a LOT! I suggest never soaping up my paddles or hanging strops as I cannot predict just how this will affect them.

So, try the slit trick and see what happens. If this does not correct it let me know and I'll fix that part up for you.

Tony

My a/c unit went out yesterday afternoon so we had to open the windows last night. A nice thunderstorm kept the temp down but it was pretty humid, about 110%, LOL. I wondered what was going on when I got up this morning and my #1's leather was about a foot longer than the linen. (Used the paddle this morning, btw)

Adjusted the linen tonight, back to normal. Good design, Tony.

And, yes, I did repair the a/c today. Dual capacitor went out. Easy fix, no service call required. Good thing, too, cause they couldn't get here until Monday. The missus would have had us in a hotel all weekend otherwise.