Thread: Linen backing

The Linen is one of those things you either believe in or not. Personally, I do but many don't.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

The Linen is one of those things you either believe in or not. Personally, I do but many don't.

It sounds obscure or arrogant to say it, but it's one of those things where if you get a good one and you learn to use it, it's hard not to see how great a good linen is. For me, that was getting a good NOS vintage linen (I haven't had the luck of getting any good strops other than a kanayama 80000, and the linen on that one is the weak link), and seeing that using one - for me - once per week for 30 strokes literally keeps a good quality razor at a smooth ATG shaving level for months, as opposed to a couple of weeks on leather alone. What was once about 15 shaves of time before the hones is now 10 times that, and the edge for the whole period is very consistent as opposed to often honing and no linen, where the edge is blinding the first 2 or 3 days and gradually progresses to pulling or at least semi-dull feeling.

I used SRD's poly webbing for about a year and just switched to Neil's linen 6 weeks ago and the difference is remarkable. Since I never use pasted strops, the secondary material is very important to me. I know they chose the poly webbing because it holds pastes well but IMO linen is much better for a traditional maintenance routine.

-john

A linen strop is very underrated, real (good)linen even more so. Before synthetic stones for hundreds of years people kept razors shave ready with Linen and Leather.

Now days, we routinely go to the stones. A good linen and leather strop can keep you shaving for a long time.

Get the linen, a quarter inch width is no big deal.

I have the suede leather Nakayama and it is nice, but it’s not linen.

Good canvas and leather can also keep a razor shave ready for years. My factory-sharpened DOVO has given me superb daily shaves for over five years thanks to my Illinois 361 strop.