Thread: Abrasive Hanging Strops Users??

How many of you fellow actually use abrasives on hanging strops. I know there were a few threads about abrasives on linen, etc....
I know this was common practice many years ago and even my barber had a "Sharpen"/"Finish" strop on his chair. One component was plain leather, the other coated with a red abrasive.

So, have you experienced any rounding of the edge with normal use or do you take extra effort to keep the strop even more taut than usual? How about the fineness of you abraisives......TI pastes (2 micron maybe), Dovo red, green or black? Chromium?

Do you use it only occasionally like a paddle for refreshing or do you use a mild abrasive almost every shave to maintain a highly polished edge?

I got my own thoughts on this and have experiemtned quite a bit but wanted to hear your experiences first.

Tony

I had pasted a couple hanging strops with Amplex Diamond .5 and .25 but to tell you the truth I used them lying flat on a table. I got good results but I think a paddle or bench strop is the way to go with pastes. If I was going to use them hanging I would keep them as taught as possible.

I'm pretty sure Chris Moss uses them.

I like my pasted hanging strops, one linen with beeswax, chrome on one side and Hand American boron carbide on the other side. I also have amplex .5 on the back side of a leather strop.
I do not use them on a daily basis I use them to refresh, or a few 5-10 swipes after sharpening.
The hanging strops have really earned their keep with smiling and warped blades. I have since learned to sharpen out of the ordinary blades, but prior to learning that, the only way I could get them shaving and non-tuggy was with the hanging pasted strops.
I do pull like Jack La Lanne when using the pasted strops. I have not noticed any rounding of the edges.
Charlie

I use a hanging strop pasted with .5micron and .25micron diamond paste. I pull like Charles Atlas and use the .25micron daily to maintain a really keen edge. I love the results and have not noticed any negatives. I may live to regret it, but for now, I enthusiastically endorse their use!

I have one side of a leather hanging strop pasted with the Dovo Red paste.

I use it infrequently - mostly after the hone (gives a slightly finer, or at least smoother, edge than straight off the 8K) or if a blade needs a minor touch-up.

Never had an issue with rounding edges - I'm always very careful to keep it taut (I pull like Schwarzenegger on a lat machine...)

Personally, I find it quite useful to have if needed. Light pressure and a little bit of velocity (not too much) seems to give a very nice polish, even with the relatively coarse Dovo Red grit.

James.

Tony I use Dovo Red paste on the back of one of my leather strops once about every 2 to 3 weeks to refresh my blade.

Tony, when I first started I used Thiers Issard white paste/wax on the linen side of one of your strops. I was advised to do this by the barber at Trumpers in London, he recommended 6 passes on that side every morning, followed by 20 - 30 on the leather side.

I used it like that for the first 6 months or so, and there was definately metal residue on the linen/paste which got slightly darker every use. It seemed to work fine on all my razors, but then I didn't have any other benchmark or point of reference at the time (or now).

I couldn't possibly draw a definitive conclusion as to the effectiveness, other than that there was definite evidence that metal was being removed. I don't use a linen side at all these days, I prefer to touch up my razors on a coticle or on your lovely pasted paddle every few weeks. Not because I find that more effective, I just prefer to do it that way for reasons unknown.

Sorry if that isn't much help!

Thanks guys, pretty much my finding that if held really taut and not used dailyn it is frairly effective. Sloppy, loose stropping though or frequent use can be counter productive though.

The Trumper's advice is much like many barbers did, once or twice a day to refresh. They of course shaved many faces in a single day so maybe the equivalent of us doing the abrasive swipes every 2 week or so.

I have been using a diamond spray, 0.25 and a 0.5 on a horsehide hanging strop for just a few light passes every few days and had good results. The spray kept the abrasive coating light and non-sticky. Usually I would not use horse for pastes but it seem to stay flat better than un-treated cowhide, is far more dense and I had a good amount of cosmetic "seconds" to play with. Nice texture but to many black stains or old mildew looking spots. For pasting these are idea as you get the benifits of horse and the coloration will quickly be taken over with the pastes and resulting black metal deposits. I may do a run of these at some point.

Many old multi-part strops used a red abrasive, probably a jewelers rouge material and similar to what Damon has described.

Tony

I've got a pasted hanging strop I use occasionally for a touch up with 1.0 Boron and .5 Chromium, works well for me and no problems doing a few light passes with the strop taught.

Also use the pastes on my HMA bench hone, good stuffs