Thread: Advantages of Horsehide?

I know alot of guys around here really enjoy the combination horsehide/latigo strop that Tony makes. For those of you that own one of these, what kind of advantage do you guys see in shave performance with using these?

-Hank

Originally Posted by Hank Williams

I know alot of guys around here really enjoy the combination horsehide/latigo strop that Tony makes. For those of you that own one of these, what kind of advantage do you guys see in shave performance with using these?

-Hank

I find no advantage to horsehide, in fact I have a couple of horsehide strops(not Tony's) and do not use them as I find they are no help to my razors! On the other hand Tony's red latigo is nice, and my favorite strop by far is an illinois razor strop no.# 361!

Coming off a smaller Dovo strop I have to say the width is a real treat.

The durability is obvious. The thing is like a brick-sh*thouse! It'll last 100 years.

Finally, and I know the redundancy of having both Latigo *and* Horsehide was mentioned in another post, I do feel that there's a slight difference. The final effect might be the same, but there is a difference in feel while stropping. The Horsehide is more supple, and creates that warm leather smell after fewer passes.

I give mine my highest rating.

I have both the TM smooth and the brushed horsehide as well as the heirloom artisan red latigo strops. The smooth horsehide haszero draw and the brushed has very light draw.
Light draws work best for me and the brushed horsehide is my go to strop. The raised nap gives a nice soft feedback.

I think these guys have summed it up well. No real advanatge, just a difference, something I have said all along.

Horsehide smooth or buffed will have little draw itself. That is something that conmes from the treatment of the strop...dressing with a strop dressing or in special tanning as with latigo. Plain cowhide has little draw too, it is the tanning treatment that makes it Latigo that imparts the draw (and a few other advantages such as resisitance to cupping due to it absorbing less moisture).

I find many, myslef included prefer a light draw for delicate grinds and lightweight razors and this is something horsehide works well on. For heavier razors, wedges, etc... I like more resistance or draw. It slows the heavy razor as one strops and gives more feedback as to what is happening. A light razor of a heavy draw strop seems to bog down, a heavy razor on a light draw strops seems to skate wildly across the surface.

My dual leather has two uses, one for guys who cannot decide between horse and latigo <g> and second to give two options in stropping. One can reserve the Latigo for heavy razors, horsehide for light, or one can start any razor on the latigo for half the stropping and use the horsehide as a finishing strop. Occasionally I wil run a dual leather version with less than pretty horsehide specificaly to be used with pastes. You can have a pasted side, maybe 0.5 or Cr for touchups and a Latigo side for daily use. These are done with integral handles so as not to confuse models with my Artisan Dual leather strops. The horsehide on these has a good surface but may have grey stains that pastes will cover.

I still think the best all around surface for a strop thopugh is latigo, not horsehide.

Tony

I have a half dozen vintage strops and all of them are "shell" A.K.A. horsehide. The fact that many of the vintage strops were made with this material is somewhat of an endorsement IMHO. After all, these were made primarily for barbers who used them day in and day out.

I also have Tony's horse/latigo and it is a great strop. To be honest it is the one that I use most often. My routine is 50 round trips on a vintage linen followed by 15 on the latigo and another 15 on the horse. More often then not the end result is no problem passing the HHT and a close and smooth shave.

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

I still think the best all around surface for a strop thopugh is latigo, not horsehide.

Since you wrote this I've been using the Latigo more and more. It's become more worked in, and I really love the results.

Originally Posted by Hank Williams

I know alot of guys around here really enjoy the combination horsehide/latigo strop that Tony makes. For those of you that own one of these, what kind of advantage do you guys see in shave performance with using these?

-Hank

I have a TM horsehide and find my "singing blade" razors seem to give a little better shave while my normal blades seem to do better on a latigo strop for the same number of laps. If I add another 20-30 laps the horsehide does them all equally well.

The horsehide does take a little getting used to as at first it feels like you are just waving the razor back and forth in the air and it's REAL easy to put a nick in the strop if you aren't careful...in fact I'll probably be hitting Tony up for a replacement leather piece for this strop soon if my technique doesn't improve.

I have the horse/latigo and a latigo/linen version. Both are 3 inch versions. I use the horse/latigo for my hollow grounds, and the latigo/linen for my heavier grinds....although here lately, I've been quadruple stropping the wedges on the linen/latigo..then switching strops and going to latigo/horse...the different latigos have slightly different draws, which makes for a different feel.


The results are quite nice.....heavenly, actually.

No surprise given his experience that Tony would sum up finding a difference regarding horsehide and thinner grinds. I haven't been shaving with wedges for quite awhile and I find that I prefer buffed horsehide over cowhide. There is a noticeable difference. In fact this morning during pre-shave stropping I started on buffed cowhide and the razor passed the HHT as usual, but the cut was a bit "grippy". I went to the horsehide for about 25 passes and the HHT was silent and effortless. I've tried variations of this (cow then horsehide or vice versa) many times and know the change in the edge was not simply because I did 25 additional passes on a strop.

Chris L