Hit the canvas

I must say that I am now firmly in the camp of enjoying what the canvas strop can do for your edge.

I will add the caveat that I do use the white paste on my canvas (TM new smooth canvas, my Kintaka canvas came pre-pasted with the white stuff, which is what turned me on to it in the first place!).

I was ambivalent about the effect of canvas before I pasted it. Didn't seem to do much good, nor harm...just something to do that was kind of enjoyable (for me, anyhow...). After loading the TM canvas with Dovo white paste I noticed an immediate improvement in edge refinement.

As of late, I had a couple razors come off the hones that were extremeley sharp, and left me with a couple of weepers, and the edge felt on the verge of getting harsh. Afore my next shave I hit up the canvas, and violla--still wickedly sharp, but the edge now felt quite comfortable on my face.

So, if you have a canvas strop, and can't tell if it's doing anything for you or not, load it up stem to stern with Dovo white paste and see how you like it then!

I like the real linen that option that Tony provides - I don't use any paste, but find that the stiffness of the linen really mellows the edge, but keeps its sharpness, as you say.

I've tried experimenting with how many to strop, and have noticed that after about 25 laps on the linen, there is no marked improvement to the edge or smoothness - I like a 25 linen, 50 leather combo.

Thanks for the observations - glad to know that I'm not the only one who sees and improvement in smoothness while stropping on the fabric side!

Mark

Pull up a chair to the "Yeah linen is there for a reason" camp...
Every shave gets 25 linen and 50 leather...
Every newly honed razor gets 50 linen and 100 leather...

BTW that's when I do my really close edge inspection with a loupe, right after the 50 laps on the linen, if there is going to be an edge problem, the roughness of the linen will show it....

It's good to hear the benefits of canvas/linen stropping. I've got to give it another go.

I use the linen on the back of my Illinois strop every shave. It's loaded with the dovo white paste, and I love it! I can attest to the smoothing properties of the white-stuff loading linen. After I hone I inspect the edge with a 30x microscope, and then after 40 or so laps on the linen, and it makes a big difference using the linen after! It really smooths out the bevel.

And amen to the linen being there for a reason, it's not just for show!

Dave

Sometimes we try to over analyze the things we do involving shaving thinking we will discover some hidden truth that no one else has ever seen or that unless we have some quantitative evidence maybe people are wasting their time and sometimes we forget that when people have been doing something for a whole bunch of years there must be a reason for it. I think using a linen strop falls into this category.

At last! Some definitive posts on the benefits of the much maligned canvas/linen strop. Thank you guys!
I hope others will put the effort into trying the linen, not just dismiss it out of hand as a waste of time.

Great post Seraphim

PuFF

Well, I for one am disappointed with the lack of onamotopoeia in this post, Seraphim. No, Tszzzzzzwwhips!, VVVVWwwwuuuhps!, Schhhhhkkks!, or anything. When I see a seraphim strop post, I expect plenty of nonsensical made up words meant to describe the sounds you hear. I'll let it go this time, but don't let it happen again... :):)

"Tszzzzzzwwhips!, VVVVWwwwuuuhps!", are good sounds to hear when using the canvas.


However, if you hear a "Schhhhhkkks! " I fear that you may have just lifted your spine!:eek:


Back to the hones to try again....;)