My stropping experiment

Yellow paste, red paste. Crox, Diamond, treat with Neatsfoot oil, Mink oil,etc. What to put on a strop? And if you put it on you can't take it off! At the Minnesota meet I got a piece of leather from HNSB. I liked it. It is the lower one in the picture. Today I made 7 more. 6 three inches wide and one 2 3/4inches because thats what came from the piece I bought. I now have 8 strops of very similar characteristics. I have a bit left over for a few paddle strops but this is enough for today. What should I put on them to experiment? :thinking: Any thoughts appreciated. TimAttachment 91824

Nice,

you gave us to many strops and to many choices... put what ever make you happy but left one without anything on it and compare to rest of strops. I have two custom made strops without any paste and they are outstanding as they are. Friend of my made it for me back in Europe and I am very pleased with their qulity.

In your situation you have so many that I even don`t know what to suggest :-)

Good luck!

Regards

http://img.tapatalk.com/63f2844e-6af2-1c46.jpg
Im kind of in the middle of the same thing, I moistened one and rolled it with a heavy glass bottle, its like a whole different piece of leather. Ill never put sandpaper to a strop again!

Anyways im looking forward to the results of your experiment!

Leave one clean and put graphite on another. Everything else is just foolhardy honing on leather. I want you to find the differences between those two, such as honing characteristics, time between honings, smoothness of shave, etc. Just kidding about everything else bit.

Today I made a hanger for my strops. I put it up before asking my wife for permission! She has been shaking her head at me more than usual the last couple of days.

Since the picture I have added graphite to one. I was deciding what to use and my daughter said that didn't we use graphite for the Pine Wood derby cars. I looked in an old box and there was a tube of it. She is home for spring break and that must have been about 15 years ago. It made me happy to know that not all of what I was trying to teach the kids over the years has gone in one ear and out the other.

I am starting to wonder what I have started for myself. It is going to take a long time to try each these things out once a day to make a good judgement. Tim

Attachment 91912

Isn't graphite a lubricant? I'm using lampblack on newspaper (wrapped on a glass sheet). My regular strop is newspaper without the lampblack; giving me good results (and all I can afford for now).

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Originally Posted by slickshave

Isn't graphite a lubricant? I'm using lampblack on newspaper (wrapped on a glass sheet). My regular strop is newspaper without the lampblack; giving me good results (and all I can afford for now).

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That is what I think also. I have used the strop once and it has no draw. Hardly any resistance. No friction in my mind equals no heat so it would even take that possibility out of the question. It is very soft so I have a hard time believing it does much of anything. That being said I used it last night for the first time. I used to many variables to determine anything but the shave was fine so it didn't hurt anything.

Each of these strops cost me about as much as 4 Sunday papers so cost isn't much of an issue.

Tim

Tim, you are nuts! Hehehe.
I am looking forward to your conclusions on this...

What did you use to sew the strops?

I use graphite as a lubricant on my bass bridge to keep the strings from grabbing during installation or tuning. That is also why it is used on the wheels of your pinewood derby car.

I think Lynn brought up putting graphite on a strop. I tried it, and probably won't repeate because it leaves black on the towel. Does make it nice and slick though.

Those strops look great!

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Originally Posted by HNSB

What did you use to sew the strops?

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First I glued them together with contact cement. Then I used a 4 prong thonging chisel to make the holes. Then hand sewn with waxed thread.

Not hard to do but I could certainly tell the first one from the last. One thing I learned is in the future I should use a more ergonomically designed piece of fire wood and a pad for my rear while sitting on the floor of my basement punching holes. :D

Tim

Getting this thing posted is more work than the strops. :-]

I had some questions about how I did this and I was short one D ring from the 2 3/4 inch strop so I decided to finish it and take some pictures.

First I measured

Attachment 92004

Then I used a 1/2 inch punch to make some partial holes. For the the 3 inch strops the holes were bigger.


Attachment 92005

Then I folded it and cut the rest of the V's with a scissors

Attachment 92006

Next put on some contact cement to glue.

Attachment 92007

Next, marking my lines and the tool I used to punch the holes. It is not relly a punch. It splits the leather for the hole and allows the leather to close back up after stitching. The marks are very important, at least to me!

Attachment 92008

My block of wood and the basement floor. Not very ergonomic!

Attachment 92010

Another view on the bench.

Attachment 92011

The final product with some of the tools next to the one I put graphite on. I decided to mark them in the rectangles although I don't think that I will forget which one has graphite on it.

Attachment 92012


I hope this helps and answers some of your questions.

Tim

I now have applied 4 different leather treatments. Lexol, Nor-v-gan shoe oil, Neatsfoot oil, and Mink oil. that is the order of my first impressions with the Mink oil the best. I have a piece of CroMoly roll cage tubing in a vise to burnish them with. 1 1/2 inch in diameter. [I wouldn't use anything else!;)]. I put about 500 strokes/rolls on each of the first three. The Mink oil I got to 300 and my arms were tired. Much more draw. The strop and tube were warm.

I had a good shave today but I stropped on all of them to test the draw etc. No conclusions yet!

Tim

I work lather into my strop with a glass bottle on a flat surface. Adds a lot of draw and leaves it very supple, something you won't wanna do until you try it kind of thing.

you deffinityl lost me on ths experiment i just a plain leather and linen strop and a barber hon to keep my razor runnign smooth and ive had alot of luck so far. let us know how this goes.

For the time being my stropping experiment is degenerating into a strop making experiment. I made 10 more today. 5 combo ones with leather and fire hose. I gave one of them to my neighbor who supplied me with enough fire hose for 8 strops. I then made a leather and seat belt one and 4 more seat belt singles.

Lots of learning going on here.

I used a little heavier leather today more in the 7 ounce range and that seems better.

I never thought you could over oil leather. I was wrong. I over did one with neatsfoot oil and am trying to use lather to get rid of the excess. It is removing some but I don't know where it will end up. I am thinking that it might be good for a post shave stropping to oil the edge before storage! :-]

I used rivets today. Much quicker. Although I did screw up a punch trying to remove cores that I think were stuck from the contact cement.

I found some "fine" valve grinding compound in the garage today. I am going to put that on one of the seat belts to give it a go. The strops cost me nothing more than my time and I can make them in about 5 minutes so I have nothing to loose.

Now if I only would shave 5 times a day this experiment might make some headway.

Tim

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Originally Posted by 32t

For the time being my stropping experiment is degenerating into a strop making experiment. I made 10 more today. 5 combo ones with leather and fire hose. I gave one of them to my neighbor who supplied me with enough fire hose for 8 strops. I then made a leather and seat belt one and 4 more seat belt singles.

Lots of learning going on here.

I used a little heavier leather today more in the 7 ounce range and that seems better.

I never thought you could over oil leather. I was wrong. I over did one with neatsfoot oil and am trying to use lather to get rid of the excess. It is removing some but I don't know where it will end up. I am thinking that it might be good for a post shave stropping to oil the edge before storage! :-]

I used rivets today. Much quicker. Although I did screw up a punch trying to remove cores that I think were stuck from the contact cement.

I found some "fine" valve grinding compound in the garage today. I am going to put that on one of the seat belts to give it a go. The strops cost me nothing more than my time and I can make them in about 5 minutes so I have nothing to loose.

Now if I only would shave 5 times a day this experiment might make some headway.

Tim

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How is the fire hose working out? I have seen a few people like using that stuff. Keep up the good work!

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Originally Posted by xMackx

How is the fire hose working out? I have seen a few people like using that stuff. Keep up the good work!

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The fire hose has a heavier draw than the seat belt for example. It has a much courser knit. I have been using a piece for a while. Mine tends to cup or maybe it is the fold on the edges but it gets dirtier on the sides after use. I don't think that you could cut it in half lengthwise because it would unravel.

I washed and dried the seat belts and fire hose today and got in a hurry and pulled a couple of the hoses out before they were dry to get going. The ones that I pulled out slightly damp are a lot more stiffer. If you try this let them stay in the dryer for a full cycle. [with jeans] They were much more supple afterwards.

tim

Oh man I hope your linen didnt shrink in the dryer like mine did, it came out afull 3/4" shorter then when it went in :eek:

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Originally Posted by epd

Oh man I hope your linen didnt shrink in the dryer like mine did, it came out afull 3/4" shorter then when it went in :eek:

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I never even thought of that. Since these are CUSTOM I didn't even measure them before or after and made the leather fit the hose whatever the dimensions were. LOL

the drier helped these. They ended up much more limber. When I got the hose it was folded tight and held by wire ties. It was kinked. You can still see in the pictures there are some bumps that need to be worked out.

Tim


Attachment 92426Attachment 92427

Those look great!
An iron will take those wrinkles out in a jiffy, have you tried melting the end of the hose with a lighter to prevent further freying?
I have been on the hunt for a canvas belt ends of the appropriate size, not sure of the terminology but you can see what im talking about here... fashion men's canvas belts webbing belts fabric belts products, buy fashion men's canvas belts webbing belts fabric belts products from alibaba.com
Also, from a past life I still have a vinyl cutter/ tee shirt press, and Ill be experimenting with making gold/silver labels like you would see on a brand name strop. If it works Id be glad to whip you up some labels for yours that you would apply with an iron...
This is the process .... Fashion-FILM
Dllandry, if you reading this im hoping to get it figured out intime before the next meet, your going to need some for your strops if you are interested, after all it was your DD strops that gave me the idea!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by epd

Those look great!
An iron will take those wrinkles out in a jiffy, have you tried melting the end of the hose with a lighter to prevent further freying?
I have been on the hunt for a canvas belt ends of the appropriate size, not sure of the terminology but you can see what im talking about here... fashion men's canvas belts webbing belts fabric belts products, buy fashion men's canvas belts webbing belts fabric belts products from alibaba.com
Also, from a past life I still have a vinyl cutter/ tee shirt press, and Ill be experimenting with making gold/silver labels like you would see on a brand name strop. If it works Id be glad to whip you up some labels for yours that you would apply with an iron...
This is the process

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Thanks for the ironing idea. I have melted the ends of the seat belts. They are plastic so that works. I don't think that would work on the linen of the hose. The hose seems to unravel to a certain point and then stop. I think it is how they are woven. I could put a piece of leather on the ends to clean them up.

Your label idea is interesting. But these are experimental pieces that I am trying to figure out what I like. I am making them to be disposable if need be.

The ones I have been calling seat belts aren't actually seat belts but the same thing from a patient lift. Basically a hoist. We have to replace them every 2 years whether they have been used or not. They are free. The D rings cost me about 60 cents and are reusable. If I try a paste or something on one and I don't like it they go in the garbage can.

Today I did hone up a razor and did 20 on the Crox, 100 on the fire hose, and then 60 on the plain leather. Cuts arm hair good but I will have to wait till the morning to see how the shave goes.

Tim

Those are looking really nice Tim, Those black ones look really cool. The fire hose is neat with the striping down the middle. They're starting to look professional.

The ironing on label idea is a great idea. I know that some strops are pressure stamped. "32-T" would sound cool :)

My shave today with the traditional Crox, fire hose, leather was what I expected. Good but not excellent. I suspect this will be like most things I have done. Getting to the 90th percentile is not that hard. That last 10% is the hard part.

I need to go through my drawer and get an experimental razor to dedicate to this. I have a great one in mind as I am thinking. The one I did yesterday is a Skidmore that I don't want to mess up experimenting to much.

The 32-T idea is a good one. It would get people wondering what that meant. [32 is my radio number at work and T for Tim] But I have one better yet. My last name is BLEED. I wonder what the marketing guru's would say about that as a brand name for razors and shaving related gear! I already have a couple of razors I have been experimenting with with that stamped on the tang. :rofl2:

Off to the garage to get that valve grinding compound I mentioned. I will let you know if the strop ends up in the trash!

Tim

I tried the valve grinding compound tonight. It left an interesting scratch pattern. I wish I could take pictures for the rest of you to see what I am. It is a little harsh. After the 3rd shave today my right cheek is a little "hot". LOL

Tim

Here is the latest addition to my stropping arsenal. The felt I found was what I thought a little thin so I doubled it. If I doubled it why not use 2 colors? That way each side using different sprays for example would be easily noticed. Not perfect by far, for example the rivets were to long, but a good prototype.

Yesterday I took a razor from the hones and did 20 laps on lightly Crox leather, 40 on Fire hose, 40 on graphite leather and 40 on Lexol treated leather.
Very good shave. Even though it is my experimental junk razor I hesitate to fool with it further! LOL

Tim

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Originally Posted by xMackx

"32-T" would sound cool :)

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Now I had to go buy some stamps!:)

Attachment 92797

I don't know if a strop stamped with the word "BLEED" would inspire confidence? :)

That's is really cool Tim, those letters look awesome. What type of stamps did you get?

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Originally Posted by xMackx

That's is really cool Tim, those letters look awesome. What type of stamps did you get?

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Tandy leather 3/8 inch. I have had so much teasing/fun with my name over the years. I like the fun part!

I like the name William. But I figured that I would only make it until my son was about 16 and he got tired of being called Willie Bleed. :rofl2:

Tim

Oh that's the perfect last name for a line of strops! :)