Thread: Leather surface on the strop

I agree with you.

I find that a strop with very heavy draw (eg, the old style, thick and oily latigo) bring out the edge very fast indeed, and I think that is not a bad thing, for a novice user for example. The trouble is, they do not refine the edge any further. You need a drier, faster draw strop for this.

Most bridle leathers are waxed and oiled. Depending on the degree of wax, they are poor or very good. Too much wax is not good. I have unrolled some hides that had great layers of solidified wax falling from them - good for outdoors or ranch wear or saddle making but not so good for strops.

I have been experimenting with an oiled leather - a little too oily from the tannery, but I have removed oil to the degree that it is now a fine strop with a surprising draw - medium, not heavy at all.

In fact nearly every smooth faced strop has undergone oil treatment (hot stuffing etc) during the tanning phase. Heavily oiled strops, such as chrome excel (steer hide) and even would you believe shell cordovan, are termed 'pull-up' leathers because pulling or creasing them (not recommended) brings the translucency of the oiled leather out as bands of lighter leather.

Napped leather has been used for many years - in fact, all leathers (bar the skin-faced top layer that are made by 'splitting' the leather ie using a machine called a skiver to split it in its width to two or more layers) have a milled/napped face, which may be soothed, imprinted with a pore-pattern or sprayed with some compound to make it look more like the skin layer

In fact. if you buy a 'regularised' or 'corrected' grain leather, than this has had the surface milled to get rid of imperfections before having a pore-pattern re-stamped on it. It might be left smooth like the strops dovo make, or finished with a coating to make it smooth again.

Regards,
Neil

What can i say - thank you Neil , aways a plesure to read such magnificent posts The lwather i use is naturaly taned 1 st quality cow hide /or it is sell for this , no cut or splited leather /. i never had a horse strop . There is time in front of me to buy a horse strop and a Jnat .

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i use this leather from hole hide , but is hard ,pure ,clean and if you rubb it hand only it will be a life time rubb. So i accelerate the process and put oil on it , sand , rubb - enjoy .
First i think that for the good strop is needed good leather only . but later it is very hard work to make it suple , forgiving . to work . Quite a fight with the leather . Sure it is needed knowledge and skils , like yours .
Im still resling and experimenting , but pretty much i find what works for me . i have lso 2 thin slick leather padles - 1 with CROX 1 without . For finishins as you say .

"I have been experimenting with an oiled leather - a little too oily from the tannery, but I have removed oil to the degree that it is now a fine strop with a surprising draw - medium, not heavy at all."
Is this a secret.......I have strop with much wax/oil coming out and making strop slow. I am not happy with slow and have briefly thought of running the strop over an open flame on the stove....a good distance up to see if it leaks and I could quickly wipe it down....but I decided this was the thinking of a deformed head so I did not do this. Used a glass bottle...nothing...thought of buying some fancy heavy glass thing to burnish the surface but cost too much and used too little. OK, I'm done.

Not really a secret, Bill!

A vice with good, long jaws is necessary. I have an old screw-press book-binders vice that sits on the desktop with the screw handle on the top and heavy, horizontal jaws.

You get a stout plank of wood, planed flat, about 1.5 inches thick and wider or as wide as the strop panel. Put a couple or three layers of absorbent, smooth paper on the bottom piece of wood, then layer your strop panels on it, with a double layer of paper (no creases!) between each panel, panels laid alternately face a and rough side up, eg two faces face each other followed by two backs). Three layers on top of the last panel, then the wood, then squuexe the jaws firmly tight and leave for three hours or so. Increase the pressure a little, then leave again, for 2 or three steps.

Then remove the strops and unwrap them - the paper should have taken a fair bit of oil away. Wrap again as indicated above, and put weights (eg heavy books, irons, anything with a good weight to it) evenly across the timber and leave for a week or so. Should be ready then, but usually requires hand buffing with a soft, lint free, dry cloth (t-shirt or similar).

The only thing to pay good attention to is how much you squeeze the vice jaws together - too little is not going to force any oil out while too much will flatten and expand a soft leather by a mm or two, and wound down as tight as possible the press or vice might even make a soft leather harder and less supple.

A quicker approach is to wrap the strop in absorbent paper, no seams or creases, put it on a flat board and iron it on low, keeping the iron moving but getting yje strop warm - heat is needed to 'wick-out' the oil.

Regards,
Neil

I oiled once a strop too heavy and after i try many stupid things after to repair the first stupid thing - put too much oil on it .I put the strop under hot sun q so it began to swet like a pig . Eventualy i glued the strop to a board , put some Goi paste / green crom oxide 3 to 9 micrones rusian paste /and i give it to my frend to sharpen knives
After i make my self another one and since im very carefull with oil .
I discovered the only fundamental law in strop making recently - the leather have to be rubed with a 2 ounce pipe tobacco box Samuel Gawith - Full virginia flake , Navy flake or Skiff mixture . I tried also the Peterson Perfect plug box but is too narow to acchieve good results on the 2-5 - 3 inch belts . So Peterson is only for smoking . Sam Gawith is for smoking and rubbing .

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

I agree with you.

I find that a strop with very heavy draw (eg, the old style, thick and oily latigo) bring out the edge very fast indeed, and I think that is not a bad thing, for a novice user for example. The trouble is, they do not refine the edge any further. You need a drier, faster draw strop for this.

Regards,
Neil

And people think I'm nuts for progressive stropping Neil. That's why I have three working Lipshaws. All with different leather stages.
When will people ever figure this out? Even seasoned veterans don't get it.

Originally Posted by Tarkus

And people think I'm nuts for progressive stropping Neil. That's why I have three working Lipshaws. All with different leather stages.
When will people ever figure this out? Even seasoned veterans don't get it.

+1...I'm with Daryl, and another believer in progressive stropping. I have 2 Lipshaws with pristine original leather (very heavy draw!) and 13 vintage hanging strops that I will use in a progression from heavy draw through elegant draw to very slick draw, often doing 150-200+ laps. Works for me!

Originally Posted by Wolfpack34

+1...I'm with Daryl, and another believer in progressive stropping. I have 2 Lipshaws with pristine original leather (very heavy draw!) and 13 vintage hanging strops that I will use in a progression from heavy draw through elegant draw to very slick draw, often doing 150-200+ laps. Works for me!

Another brother from another mother

Originally Posted by Tarkus

Another brother from another mother

I'm with you Daryl (and Neil)! I know it's almost sacrilegious around these parts (especially since I own and use dozens multiplied by dozens of hones!) but I firmly believe that a better investment for the vast majority of shavers with just a few razors or very modest collections would be to invest more in a variety of strops (Both Linen and Leather and learn how to use them progressively) and way less money in hones. I think too many folks reach too quickly for the 'finisher' or the 'paste' instead of learning how to really tune an edge up with some quality stropping. Just my opinion...

Of course for those of us that have all the different and sundry forms of Acquisition Disorders, it gos without saying that enough is never enough!

Originally Posted by Wolfpack34

I'm with you Daryl (and Neil)! I know it's almost sacrilegious around these parts (especially since I own and use dozens multiplied by dozens of hones!) but I firmly believe that a better investment for the vast majority of shavers with just a few razors or very modest collections would be to invest more in a variety of strops (Both Linen and Leather and learn how to use them progressively) and way less money in hones. I think too many folks reach too quickly for the 'finisher' or the 'paste' instead of learning how to really tune an edge up with some quality stropping. Just my opinion...

Of course for those of us that have all the different and sundry forms of Acquisition Disorders, it gos without saying that enough is never enough!

Well said!!!