Stropping on linen advice..

Hey everyone.

I have a beautiful premium I strop from SRD. the leather is fantastic, really like the feed back i get. makes it super easy to have a light touch and really feel you are stropping correctly. however when i try the linen side (i upgraded to linen from the matched webbing) i have a MUCH more difficult time feeling feedback, and i fear i am messing up my edge on the linen, or soon will.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any tips for stropping on linen vs leather? Is it possible to "condition" the linen to perhaps make is a more user friendly surface?

Thanks for the help everyone, really appreciate all the replies i get when i post on here.

James

Congratulations on the SRD premium strop. You will find it to be a great strop. I don't believe SRD offers a linen secondary
strop. They do offer two types of webbing and hard pressed felt. I have several of their leather strops and I use both kinds
of their standard webbing. I find no issues with either of SRD's webbing. It does, of course, have a totally different feel from
any leather and that is by virtue of the design of the webbing and the purpose the webbing is intended to serve. Always used first before going to leather it helps align your edge and remove any contaminants left from shaving.
Either of SRD's webbed strops and their felt strop can be used with a number of treatments, CrOx, and diamonds pastes
are common. But you should learn all you can about the different treatments to better help you make a choice of the direction you would want your secondary strop to take with your edge. You can always give Don a call at SRD and I am sure
he would be happy to provide some guidance. There is a ton of information here as well. Good Luck.

Hi James,

I have a Premium I also, pretty much my go to strop. I recently heard SRD had A Premium Fabric (linen) so I checked and ordered 2 replacements to try on my Premium I and another for crox. They are a little stiff, but as I watched TV I would roll one up and then press the roll halfway together and work it back and forth between my hands like a track on a
bulldozer. It loosens up some and gets a little more pliable and that should provide more of the feedback you're looking for. I haven't put them on my strops yet, I still like the webbed material, but will try them shortly. Good Luck with yours!!

Regards,
Howard

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