Thread: Strop leather on my razor

I am finding tiny red fibers on my razor in one spot and only spot. They are hardly visible to the naked eye but I can see them in my magnifier - at first I thought it was part of my face leftover from my last shave, but after I stropped, there they were again. I have a red latigo strop from Tony, so I surmise the strop is attaching itself to my razor ever so slightly. The razor is a new Wapi (from Mike Ratliff) and the strop is - oh I already said what it was, but it is also only a few weeks into usage.

Someone in flash chat told me this was normal, and I am curious to see how many others notice this? Also, does it mean anything that I am finding the fibers in only one place on the razor about a third of the way down from the shank?

Not really knowing what I'm talking about, I would say that perhaps there may be a burr on your razor edge, that is scrapping the strop and thus creating these red fibers????

Or is it more of a red dust type of thing?

It is not unusualy for tiny fibers of leather from any strop to come off in use....the red latigo just makes it VERY easy to see. By saying "one area" do you mean a larger area or one tiny spot as if they are catching on a burr on the razor? Check the strop surface closely and see if there are a series of very fine scratches.

I nicked a razor against my faucet and didn't see it till I stropped, leaving a long, fine scratch the length of my strop.

Tony

It's hard for me to tell if the leather is hanging up on an uneven part of the metal or not. The fibers are bundled up in a tiny hardly visible heap in one particular place and then they lay out from there maybe two millimeters along the blade. I also noticed on my strop that the color has been darkening a little bit along the side where that spot of the razor passes, so I also wonder if my technique is contributing. I will get some pictures up later tonight

*sorry something went terribly wrong with the scaling.*

The spot is toward the left side of the blade in this photo above the oil mark that my finger left yesterday:



Zoomed-in (same photo) showing the leather fibers on the razor after about 15 back and forth passes over the strop:




And here is after I wiped it off.

hmm... Do u get a good shave from that area of the balde ? Maybe a few passes on a barber's hone will take care of that....

Originally Posted by justchillin

hmm... Do u get a good shave from that area of the balde ? Maybe a few passes on a barber's hone will take care of that....

There isn't enough difference for me to tell, but I did just start regularly shaving with a straight within the last week or two. The blade was well honed and is the sharpest I've used. I don't have any major problems in my shave that I can't easily attribute to green technique

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

There isn't enough difference for me to tell, but I did just start regularly shaving with a straight within the last week or two. The blade was well honed and is the sharpest I've used. I don't have any major problems in my shave that I can't easily attribute to green technique

You mentioned you have a TM strop. Does it have a linen or canvas side also? If so, a few swipes on the canvas side will help polish that area so eventually it won't snag any more leather.

Originally Posted by Kenrup

You mentioned you have a TM strop. Does it have a linen or canvas side also? If so, a few swipes on the canvas side will help polish that area so eventually it won't snag any more leather.

Good idea - I have read a few things about linen strops but I don't really see a consensus. If I knew what the linen actually did to the blade, I wouldn't be so cautious about experimenting

It never happened to me again with that or any other razor on that strop or any other. I can only conclude there was a burr of some sort on the razor as some suggested