Thread: Stropping on linen advice..

The SRD premium fabric you can upgrade to is cotton, not linen. The other possible upgrade is wool felt. Linen is thinner, softer and more pliable than cotton. I have the cotton on my SRD Premium 3 (Buffalo) strop, as well as my other 3" strops. It is stiff but works well. I imagine the cotton will eventually get softer with use, but mine certainly has not gotten softer yet. Just focus on good form, maintaining the strop taut and keeping the entire blade on the cotton, without putting any pressure on it.

Decided to put this here instead of starting a new thead. Since I had one more new premium fabric and it kind of has a flaw I decided to try breaking it in a little differently. To start, we use no fabric softener in our washer or dryer, so if you do I can't tell you how it will affect stropping (?). I measured the fabric strop before and after and there is no difference. No shrinkage. Nothing special here, but I put it in with a large load to the dryer on high for approximately an hour and ten minutes. DID NOT WASH IT!!! It made a nice difference in flexibility and softness and should make further break-in with the razor much nicer and easier. It is much better than the cardboard stiffness of a new unused premium fabric.

Regards,

Howard

ps: I tried it first in the dryer on air only by its self and with a large bath towel and in both cases it would go to the outside of the drum and just ride it around with no tumble action.

Edit: Forgot to add this. The ends are somewhat prone to unraveling so I applied a little super glue to the four corners. These are covered when the strop is assembled so it doesn't hurt anything.

thanks for the advice. last night i was rolling the premium fabric between my hands for about an hour (my hands got quite tired) and it seems to have loosened up some. I may try the dryer method as well.

were the clothes you put in the dryer wet (ie fresh from getting washed)? did you use any dryer sheets of any kind?

thanks again everyone

No softener of any kind. The clothes were straight from the washer. I checked both this morning and the one rolled by hand is the more pliable. The dryer one stiffened back up some after cooling again. I like the rolled one best. Good Luck!!

Regards,

Howard