Thread: Draw on a strop notting to do with performance?

Actually, cordovan leather gets its name from Cordoba, a
Spanish city.

True, it originated in North Africa, but the leather produced there differs in two fundamental respects:

1, The Moors tanned goatskin, and
2, The Moors used alum as the tanning agent.

The process as practiced in Cordoba is associated with equine leather, not goats, and the fundamental tanning process is of the traditional veg-tan type. Alum tanning is not considered as real tanning - if the leather is soaked the alum leaches out, the leather reverts back to its pre-tanning stage and begins to decompose.

Almost any leather can be tanned using the cordovan process - that is all it is, a process. That is why we use the double name 'shell cordovan' to specify that is equine shell tanned using the cordovan process. The main use of this was to produce shell leather for shoe making, hence the old word 'cordwainer' meaning a shoe maker.

Shell, even from old horses, is usually thin - around 2mm thick. If you go to the cheaper and longer leather that surrounds the shells (some call it 'north of cordovan') then the leather is significantly thicker. Not that shell is 'leather' in the strict sense of the word, being a subcutaneous membrane.

Part of the process of tanning is fixing the shells to plates of glass and then hand finishing them to a very smooth, lustrous finish. This is the modern meaning of shell cordovan, anything finished with other than this finish may be equine, may have been tanned using the cordovan process, but it is not shell cordovan.

As previously stated, it is very slick and gives a very fine edge. Most leathers suitable for stropping purposes do. But not every leather will - too much draw equates to slow stropping due to the resistance and can be detrimental to the edge.

As far as 'abrasive' quality is concerned, we see actual grit equivalents quoted by some newcomers who would know better if they spent some time researching here. That is not the newcomers fault, though. I can source most of this to one particular strop maker who really should know better. Putting it in print is just asking for people to repeat it. And we all know the consequence of repeating nonsensical info enough times - sooner or later people will come to believe it.

Regards,
Neil

Lol, lot of info Realy like this forum!

The way I look at sharpening is making something thin and even, so I don't belive that all a strop does is straighten, but that is just my philosophy

Originally Posted by Einar

Lol, lot of info Realy like this forum!

The way I look at sharpening is making something thin and even, so I don't belive that all a strop does is straighten, but that is just my philosophy

I agree, it is an excellent forum. Like everything else in life though, you have to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, else you get nowhere.

I suppose that 'sharpening' is a little too ill-defined to be used in a meaningful way here. Not that I doubt that you can sharpen hardened steel with soft leather - the ancient egyptians shaped adamantine granite with soft copper alloy tools and desert sand after all, but your stubble would have turned into a beard of some quite considerable length by the time you had some measurable, rather than merely subjective, results.

All roads lead to Rome so they say, so if believing what you are doing is 'sharpening' I for one will not knock it. More power to your arm!

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by Einar

Hi

Seen here that the draw on the strop have nothing to do with the grinding it does. Aren't that again's newton's law? Something must make it harder to draw and then also grind more. Or have I had 1 beer to many nowMy new strop atleast have 0 drag and I don't feel that it sharpens at all:-/

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An alco look are needed in tapatalk