Thread: linen only?

long story short,
the leather side of my strop is cut up into a thousand pieces (don't ask, started as an accident then I just amused myself)
I'm left with only the linen side of it,btw its one of those dovo finest russian leather strop or w/e those are called
the leather didnt rly cup but felt very uneven and irregular after 2 months of use, it felt kinda bumpy, strange to say the least, I didn't like this

now it's gone and I can't cough up more money on shaving gear atm
anyone ever tried shaving with a razor only using linen without the leather?
otherwise it's back to the awesome mach 3 >_<

Ive got a vintage strop tho, but its conditioning,
this seems to go pretty slowly, gets more supple, but this is an enormous slow progress, so I'm not counting on that one in the near future

I might buy a new strop eventually, if my vintage strop wouldn't be ready to go by then

anyway,
linen only, your thoughts?

thx alot guys (:

I think you should be somewhat fine... after linen I'd try newspapers. 50-100 laps should do about the same as leather. Try neatsfoot oil on that vintage strop... should make it supple. I used *ahem* baby oil on mine and it worked very well... plus it smells nice!

Try it and tell us. Thee may be a member here who only uses Linen, I don't know. Try it and let us know how it goes.

will do,
I think it won't be that bad tbh

baby oil eh, I might try that
currently i'm using dovo's yellow paste and rubbing it in well with my palm
thx for replies


EDIT

I just tried it by only using linen
first I did a HHT (I'm one of the guys that uses the hht and always get amazingly good shaves when my razor passes the test the way I like it)
the razor succeeded the hht as good as ever, tho I found that the linen on my vintage strop seems to be of much higher and better quality than my dovo's

the shave was as smooth as ever, no problems whatsoever, did 3 passes, very good shave, bbs
i like it

i was just thinking about this early this morning. i might try stropping with linen only. we will see how it works!!

i like this idea! stroping on leather seems harder because it wants to twist and not stay flat while im trying to strop it but on the other hand the linnen side will go flat and stay flat gonna have to wait and see what happens

I guess if linen did the job as well as leather old time barbers would have used it since its cheaper and easier to use. My guess is since the idea is to put the final dressing on the razor you need as smooth a surface as possible. You could try an old belt or you hand.

Of course if it works you might become famous.

Can you disassemble the strop and flip the leather over?

The reverse of some leather makes a good strop with a little dressing.

Originally Posted by BAMARACING8

i like this idea! stroping on leather seems harder because it wants to twist and not stay flat while im trying to strop it but on the other hand the linnen side will go flat and stay flat gonna have to wait and see what happens

I can't imagine why a strop would twist in use unless maybe you're pulling too hard on it. Are you sure its flat to begin with ?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I guess if linen did the job as well as leather old time barbers would have used it since its cheaper and easier to use. My guess is since the idea is to put the final dressing on the razor you need as smooth a surface as possible. You could try an old belt or you hand.

Of course if it works you might become famous.

I agree. It may be doable, but I'd think it'd be status quo as inexpensive of an option as it is...

I've used the inside of my left forearm and my palm with some success, but I wouldn't want that to be a longterm situation. I'd probably use a belt for daily stropping and once a week (or if the edge starts to degrade a touch), I'd use newspaper until I were able to pick up another strop... There are a couple that I'd like to pick up at the moment