Thread: Cotton vs Linen

I would like to purchase a strop, and was thinking what would be best for the second component.
The difference may be minimal, but i would like to know how other members feel about this comparison.
Cheers.

I'd like to hear a fresh take on this also
as I have felt & am leaning towards a new strop with Natural Flax Linen

Linen fans do abound...I have a piece of it lying around which I will most probably fabricate (bad pun) into some sort of strop eventually. Right now I have two Tony Miller fabric strops: one in a coarse cotton material (not unlike a firehose texture) and another in a much finer cotton weave (very similar in texture to the aforementioned piece of linen) truth be told...I see NO difference between the two after use.

I think linen is one of those things which have a cult-like following. It obviously is not bad stuff...but how much "Better" it is than the materials currently in use by a quality strop maker like Tony Miller?? Hard to say....

Like all things to do with wet shaving the answer is subjective. My primary personal preference is for natural linen. I also use SRD's felt, and their standard secondary material as well.

Neil Miller linen for me every time.
his linen is more abrasive than his cotton strop but I couldnt say linen in general is more abrasive than all cotton though.

Slasher,

I prefer genuine linen, especially matched with shell cordovan. No idea why, but there is something magical in the feel of genuine linen. Also, in discussing genuine linen with a strop maker, he held that genuine linen also has some minor sharpening characteristics. For me though, it's the feel of genuine linen — sweet.

I'm a genuine linen man myself. OTOH, I confess I've never had a cotton second component to try. It is common knowledge that more expensive is better ..... .......... and linen is more expensive so .......

Linen is the classic high end material going way way back. You have to ask yourself why is that? If cotton was better wouldn't that have become THE material to use?

I have both and I'll take linen any day. it's not that cotton doesn't work because it certainly does as does many other materials.

I have 2 strops one has felt as the secondary material and one has, I am guessing, a grey coloured linen from flax.
Both seem to work but I just like to use the flax linen more. Just to add to the confusion, linen can be made from flax, cotton or other materials so it is all linen.

Bob

When I look at the NOS Old Strops on the Bay. Linen is always the secondary strop material. My Dad always taught me to listen to my elders.