Thread: Breaking in a strop?

I've been looking into the how-to's on classic shaving website,
specifically on strops. There is a section on the different types of
strops and the one that seems most popular is the Russian/Cowhide. It
goes on to explain how to "break one in":

1. Rub dry pumice stone over the strop in order to remove the outer
nap and develop a smooth surface.
2. Rub stiff lather into the strop.
3. Rub dry pumice stone over the strop until smooth.
4. Clean off the strop.
5. Rub fresh stiff lather into the strop.
6. Rub a smooth glass bottle over the strop several times until a
smooth surface is developed.

Does this need to be done with off the shelf strops? Not that I'm lazy
or anything but I don't have a pumice stone, what is a nap, and what
is stiff lather anyway?

No, I don't think so, most strops of "modern" design do just fine. I think some types of strops need all that prep, but I forget off hand which ones. I suggest just rubbing your palm into it and see how it improves as you continue stropping. I like to add a little strop dressing occasionally, like once a month...but thats me.

I believe many of the Illinois strops require this sort of break-in. A new Dovo strop or one from Tony Miller probably won't.

I don't know guys but I have read the pumice stone thing for ages and in my opinion it sure is not going to improve any strops I have seen.

What "nap" is it removing to create a "smooth surface"? Other than the Illinois #827 Russian I can see it taking a smooth strop and rubbing a "nap" into it but surely not the other way around.

The Illinois (#127, 361,etc), the Dovo, the Jemmico, any of my Heirloom strops all come with a nice smooth but not slippery surface. Pumice stones are fairly aggressive and would tend to remove that nice smooth surface.

Now that said my oil treated strops have been "stoned" to create a fine matt texture but not all leathers will work this way.

Tony

Well, my DOVO russian was uneaven and wawy from the beggining... I used it for couple of weeks, rubbed it with conditioned, rollled with the bottle, what not, and it stayed that way. I then got some 200 grit sandpaper, and work the grits to 800, and it seemed improved. It was treated with the DOVO yellow paste every two months or so, with different results... I mean, one month the strop draws like crazy, so much that it makes stropping dificult, the other month the strop is mirror shiny and no draw at all... Two or three months ago I made me a strop from army belt, heavy leather, and it worked better than the DOVO. Since I got one of Tony's strops, they are both retired to my great satisfaction...

Nenad

Please stick with me ... I'm trying to get this right in my head.
If I was to buy a Dovo Russian strop it probably wouldn't need any prep, just a strop dressing (such as 'Fromm Illinois Strop Dressing') every month or so. This would only be on the leather side, not the canvass side.
But if it did need prepping or it was rough in some way I could rub it with the palm of my hand to rub the oils from my hand into it. If this didn't work I could try rubbing a bottle on it to smooth it out. If this doesn't work I can use sandpaper going from 200 grit to 800 grit.
This is all just to get the strop ready to use. Once it is ready to use it needs only the strop dressing every month or so.
Is there any prep or maintenance for the canvas side? Where do the pastes come in to it.

Your getting closer...the strop dressing keeps the strop supple and working. Its not truely a part of getting it broken in. Pretty consistently you can just buy a strop and its good to go, thus the term strop (as opposed to belt, leather whip..or whatever). The palm rubbing acts like a break-in and conditioner. The rest I think your pretty close on....its a step by step process to get some really tough strops broken in I suppose. The key is to simply ask the group before you go off buying strops...I've never had one that needed anymore breaking in than being stropped (the stropping itself breaks the strop in)

Occasionally I find a strop gets warped or messed up and then I attack it with a rolling pin...I'm sure a glass jar is better but I'm not sure why...

I clean the linen every now and then and I put candle wax on mine, just so it works a little better. But I use my linen as an after shave cleaning strop and I think most guys use theirs to "heat" up the blade and give it a 'gross" stropping.

I once read about a guy who shaved guys with an old razor, a hone, and some tire rubber to strop on...since then I haven't gotten too spun up about how complex things can get...they only get that way if you let them.

The only time I've ever used a pumice stone on a strop is on the linen strop to rough up an old one once it stars to get glazed over. I don't think I would ever use it on leather. I have used the rolling pin routine on some older Eboy stropps I've gotten, it seems to soften them up a bit and take out any minor warps.

Mmmm... dressing. I'll take bleu cheese, please. (Sorry, it's been a long day.)

I take it, then, that strop dressing is what's in that bottle that came with my strop from Tony?

Abrasive pastes are great tools for edge maintenance. They usually lack the cutting power to establish a new edge or remove a nick; their primary function is to polish the existing edge. Dovo makes a red and black, although I don't know if I've ever heard what the grit/micron size is. Amplex makes a diamond impregnated paste that is supposed to be really nice. Chromium oxide works pretty well.

Pastes need to be applied to their own strop, and you should wipe the razor before changing strops to avoid cross-contamination. Lots of folks like using paddle strops for pastes, or the flatbed hone from HandAmerican.com.

Razors only need to visit the pasted strop(s) when the edge starts to dull through use a bit. When you can feel the razor tugging instead of cutting, time to refresh the edge. This varies from person to person, and often from razor to razor. There isn't a hard and fast rule timewise or number of shaves, it's a feel deal. I use 30-40 round trips on the pasted strop, wipe, then linen and leather as normal.