Bouncing blade on strop !

Hi gents,

I need a little advice. I have a couple of very nice razors, both about 1/2 hollow and in shave ready condition (both give nice shaves).

I have a Tony Miller Latigo Heirloom strop with the nice chunky D Ring handle. I have never treated the strop other than rubbing the palm of my hand up and down the leather as suggested in other posts.
I attach the strop to a solid hook in the wall and keep it nice and taught whilst stropping. The problem I feel I am experiencing is a bumping of the blade as I pull it over the leather. It appears to stick to some parts of the strop and then skim over some other parts. If I put virtually no pressure on the blade then it floats across the leather and I feel no draw at all. If I apply more pressure I get the skippy/bumpy thing happening. I am concerned that the bumping might be damaging the edge of the blade.

When I look at the leather in the light I can see that my blade has taken the shine off the leather (a little) in the area where I stropped. I have no nicks or visible lumps etc on the strop, infact it is perfect.

Have I missed something out, should I have wiped the strop down before use or done something else, has it been coated with a protective film etc.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long thread, I have learnt tons from this site over the last year but feel I havnt yet properly cracked stropping.

Regards
London

It is likely just sticking a bit to the finish in some spots. Latigo is treated with waxes and oils and may have places with a bit more grab. You may want to try the rubbing, briskly this time right before stropping to warm the strop a little or vary the pressue a little, maybe a bit more than you are using.

Try those two things a while and if all esle fails, maybe rub a little Neat's Foot Oil on your hand and then rub the strop to even out the surface "stickiness" a bit. It is one of those things that evens out over time but these steps may speed that up a bit.

Tony

Latigo has quite a lot of draw so when used with hollow grinds it is best to concentrate pressure on the spine of the razor rather than the whole. This takes some getting used to but done slow and methodical, you will see a favourable result.
Tony may not appreciate this..... but I found his Latigo strops come up fantastic with a good going over with 180 grit dry paper. This breaks down the surface glaze and reveals an under layer that very closely resembles a Russian finish. I am not advocating you try this if this is your only strop though and if you do, remember to rub the strop after with a dry scotch pad to remove any embedded particles.

You must give the strop time to break in and tips like sanding will speed this up along with a host of others. I will point out again that concentrating pressure to the spine and not the whole or edge will stop razor bounce on a heavy draw strop.

PuFF

Similar to what PuFF said, you could also use a dry pumice stone to dress the surface (I pumiced until the surface gloss on the strop dulled evenly all over).

Follow this with a vigorous rubbing using the smooth side of a straight sided beer bottle (best to separate the leather strop from the canvas and lay on a hard flat surface to do the pumice and bottle). Finally reassemble the strop, hang, and give the leather a good hand finish.

I just finished doing the above to my IRS 361 and it really improved the action of the strop. Don't be alarmed if this changes the color of the strop a bit.


Scott

Forgot to mention that I wiped the strop off with a slightly damp cloth after the pumice tx and then dried with a dry cloth before the bottle rubbing.

:tuHi gents,

I rubbed it down very lightly then cleaned it thoroughly and worked it with the bottle.

What a difference, lovely and smooth and an even draw as the blade is stropped, no more skipping and pulling.

Thanks for the good advice guys, it was spot on.

Regards
London:D

For the record, Puffahs method does work very well...buffing the Latigo for a really nice silky finish. I just don't want someone to have to do this in order to use my strop. I'd rather show you the easy tune up or just replace it first.

Take care,
Tony