Thread: Slippery Strop?

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Creel,
If your's is a Latigo model it should regain a bit of draw from a week or two of use. Most are fairly stiff when new but the wear in fairly quickly. I've had a few guys fool with them, wish they had not, then let them wear in a little and were then thrilled.

I'm a fan of leaving them alone for at least a week or two first to judge the draw before doing anything.

Tony

Tony,

Even though I don't have one of your strops, what you mention is kind of what I was thinking with this new strop. On my original strop I roughed it up with a pumice stone as a side effect of smoothing out some nicks, and I *think* that's how it became a heavy drawer. I don't want to mess with this new one if I don't have to and it seems at the moment that it's doing its job fine. I'm just used to more draw, and it somehow doesn't feel right to have the razor whizzing across a strop so easily. But it's only been a few days (although I've put about 20 razors over it so far ).

I'll live with it for a few weeks and see what develops. Anyone have any thoughts on a two-stage stropping regime? Eg strop on a heavy drawer, followed by the "slicker" or vice-versa? Or is this just overkill?

Thanks for the replies everyone.

James.

James,
I do the heavy draw, light draw stropping quite often. Latigo first, Horse or a smooth cowhide second. In the good old days many barbers strops were two leather components, not just leather and linen. Often one was marked "Sharpen" and may have been pasted, the other marked "Finish" and simply dressed with strop dressing. I done a few of these up too, double leathers a year or so ago and recently released them again. I'm going to try the Sharpen/Finish version for my own testing and see how that does.

Tony