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I purchased a Dovo hanging leather strop w/linen side, along with tubes of yellow and white Dovo paste. Now, the linen side of the strop was already pasted, but I don't know about the leather side.
Does anybody know if Dovo strops come pre-treated on the leather side too? If it's untreated, should I treat it right away, or isn't it necessary yet?
I had a Jemico strop (pretty much the same thing) and as I recall I treated the leather with the yellow "paste". It isn't really a honing paste so much as a leather conditioner, and provides no abrasive properties.
It isn't likely to *hurt* the leather to treat it IAW the instructions, at any rate.
HTH
John P.
There are different qualities of DOVO strop.
The top quality is a Russian leather. Very soft and flexible and high quality. If you have this strop, I suggest you leave it alone as it will do a fine job as it is.
As for the less expensive strops, a bit of paste made give the strop more draw if you like that.
My strop says "Prima Rindleder" on it - don't think it's the russian leather then.
I'll try it a bit as it is, see how it goes...
You are correct, that is the less expensive strop. Still very good and does a good job but I found it a little small/short.
You can put a gentle coating of oil on the leather just by rubbing the palm of your hand on the leather.
You can fluff the leather back up again by rubbing a pumice stone over the surface gently.
Next time I'd recommend buying a strop from Hand American or Tony Miller. These two specialist American craftsmen specialise in strops. Their products represent better value and better quality than the DOVO products.
First of all, I'm just as patriotic as the next guy, but I have yet to see anything made in Germany that wasn't built well, built skillfully, and with great attention to detail, and the Dovo strop is no exception. I'm sure the TM strops are built well too, from what I read, but even a "lower-priced" Dovo is a nice strop. How you USE it will make all the difference, as with most other things. Of course, if you have some extra change burning a hole in your pocket, sure.....pop for a top-of-the line TM. It's still not going to make a difference if you don't have your stropping skills down though and there are plenty of places online to see that demonstrated. Good Luck.
Quick general stropping question.
Regarding pressure: it i said to keep the strop taut, and apply little pressure. However, in Joel's video, when he's stropping the strop seems to flex quite a bit. How much flex is too much?
Generally speaking there shouldn't be much flex at all. It's better to start lighter and apply almost no pressure at all. After a while you will get the feel for it and can start applying very mild pressure. I find that my razors shave better with some pressure added to the blade while stropping, this is something you will have to gradually learn the feel of though as if you apply too much pressure you can roll the blades edge and your razor will need to be honed. Start light light light.
Patrick