In an ongoing quest to screw around with pretty much every shaving thing I use, here's my latest abomination:
The Lithuanian finish strop!
I have never seen first hand a Russian finish strop, but I know it uis made form the rough side of the leather. So. I took my TM Apprentice strop (a fantastic piece of leather, let me tell you!) and gave it my own treatmnet, and I call it what I darn well like!;)
I first sanded it down using 220 to get rid of any dingle-dangles (that's a leather working term), and then proceded to rub in some neatsfoot oil and some beeswax. I laid the strop down on a clean countertop and rubbed the dickens out of it with a glass bottle (my Lucido aftershave balm bottle, to be exact...). Lots of brown debris and detrius readily came off. Eventually it got to have a rather nice looking finish.
How's she work?
Well, I'm partial to heavy grind razors....1/4 hollow and up. On most strops it seems that you are just marking time as the heavy chunk o steel glides up and down the leather...well, not so with the Lithuanian finished strop! No sir...this strop now has more draw than Hanna Montana at a teeny-bopper convention. It probably isn't fully broken in yet, but the few times I've used it on my vintage Tally Ho, it felt like the blade was magnetized to the strop surface. The rough side now has a definite suede like finish to it.
Finished it off on the plain latigo side (I had previousy also buffed that with 400 or 600 grit), and it shaved like a dream.Can't say as the Lithuanian finish side had anything to do with it or not, as heavy Sheffield steel always feels nice and smooth to me:shrug: but the stropping felt good, so I'm not complaining.
I'm contemplating adding a touch of cigar ash to the rough side as a mild abrasive, but as I currently have the flu, I'm in no shape to create any cigar ash at the moment...:(. But I do have a nice Punch here at my desk for when I recuperate....
Not that it really needs it, as it seems to me that wedgey razors keep their edges for ages as it is, so it may be overkill.
