Thread: Linen?!

I am in the market for a new strop, I am leaning towards one of the Juchtenleder one because I did not like the feel of my English bridle 3" strop and I want a thinner strop. 3" just wasn't doing it for me. So after I sell that one I can't decide if I want to get just a single sided strop, a leather and linen strop, or a double sided leather strop. How important is a strop of linen along with the leather strop? I hone with a coticule and it's always advised to strop 60 linen 60 leather after finishing honing on a coticule. This may play a part in my decision. I'm torn between double sided leather of the same smooth Juchtenleder or a Juchtenleder and linen razor strop.

The choices the choices...

Thanks.

That has gone around and around on here. There are two camps, those that use the second material and those that don't. It seems to come down to what you like to do. I have a few second materials. Felt, a silk finish linen, suede and firehose are my choices. I like the silk finished lined the least, I can't stand the noise it makes, I tried nylon webbing and got the same sound and sensation so I don't use it either. That zip zip sound makes my teeth hurt. The firehose was an ok material but because it is on a paddle I don't use it much, I suppose I could make a hanging strop. The felt and the suede I like and they are on strops that I like the leather on so they are the ones I use the most. Very heavy draw on the suede. In the end they all do the same thing for me so it's all about how you feel about the material, how it feels and how it sounds.

Could I just buy a single sided and use the back side as the suede side ? or is the back side the suede side?

the flesh side would need to be finished to be used as a suede side. I am not sure how far you would have to take it. The suede strop I have was made to be a suede strop by someone else.

I used to think the linen wasn't really essential. Over the years I've changed my mind and wouldn't be without it. The benefit will be according to the material and texture. Unlike leather where they all do the same thing no matter the type, with the cloth product it will vary. A nice knobby linen is the classic stuff and is what I use. The other materials work too just in slightly different ways.

I'm with thebigspender on this one, I believe that genuine flax linen has a significant abrasive quality to it and will definitely help an edge. I use flax linen that I source from Torolf Myklebust at Scruoleworks.
The linen that he uses is the best I have found so far and is a key component in my honing arsenal. I always use it after the stones and it not only improves the HHT but also more importantly the shave quality.
I use it as needed to bring my daily drivers back to a superb level of sharp, usually not every shave but a good stropping on flax linen after every few shaves is all I need to keep my edges running between trips to the stones. I use leather only before and after my daily shaves.
Many Coticule users swear by it as a way to finish edges off of those stones as those edges usually benefit from extended stropping, so I am told.

I recently purchased a Linen replacement panel from Torolf for my SRP XL Bridle strop. This replaced the webbing material.

What I noticed was that a razor that I use more often than the rest of the rotation, that my notes said was starting to fade ever so slightly, was returned to: "wonderful, moon & stars, clouds & rain" with the change.

Question for the group, do you use the linen before every stropping?

I have been using 20/60 before and 20/20 after, I normaly strop the night before as part of the get ready for bed ritual. (SWMBO noted the change in sound from webbing instantly BTW)

Originally Posted by S0LITARYS0LDIER

I am in the market for a new strop, I am leaning towards one of the Juchtenleder one because I did not like the feel of my English bridle 3" strop and I want a thinner strop. 3" just wasn't doing it for me. So after I sell that one I can't decide if I want to get just a single sided strop, a leather and linen strop, or a double sided leather strop. How important is a strop of linen along with the leather strop? I hone with a coticule and it's always advised to strop 60 linen 60 leather after finishing honing on a coticule. This may play a part in my decision. I'm torn between double sided leather of the same smooth Juchtenleder or a Juchtenleder and linen razor strop.

The choices the choices...

Thanks.

As you hone on a coticule, I would indeed advise you to get a strop with a good fabric component. It helps significantly in bringing the coticule edge to reach its potential compared to just leather. Also, why have two sides of the same leather if you can have two different surfaces? If you, for some strange reason, see no benefit in using the fabric part, you can always just use the leather part.

I use a vintage fabric strop, thick and heavy. I'm still not sure if it's heavy, greenish cotton or really thick linen. I thought linen, but I suspect cotton. Either way, I don't really care that much as it works wonderfully.

Persdonally I feel my fabric component helps me keep an edge in good shape longer by cleaning off miniscule crud, cleaing up micro damage and helping to straighten out the edge. I feel it does it better than leather alone, so I use it for every stropping. Usually about half the number of strokes I do on leather.

My regiment is usually before shaving: 30 on fabric, 60 on leather; after: 20 on fabric. It seems to work nicely.

Two cases for the linen - and it's a vintage silk finish treated genuine linen type for me, all the way:
1) it will increase the time between honings by a factor of ten while doing almost nothing to the geometry of a razor over hundreds of shaves. You can make hundreds of shaves, have little metal on the linen, and refinish the razor literally with your finest stone in five minutes
2) for stones that don't have good initial sharpness, like many coticules or some other barber hones. the stone will set the geometry and the linen will gradually create a smooth edge as it's used. You end up with a shaving edge that is smooth and much more keen than the stone itself could create going just to leather.

I use mine once per week, and shave every day (so the razor sees the linen once every 7 shaves). The razor edge even after 200 shaves is almost the same as it was at the 2nd shave, the honing at that point on some razors is little more than a double check to make sure the geometry is still in shape.

Originally Posted by DaveW

Two cases for the linen - and it's a vintage silk finish treated genuine linen type for me, all the way:
1) it will increase the time between honings by a factor of ten while doing almost nothing to the geometry of a razor over hundreds of shaves. You can make hundreds of shaves, have little metal on the linen, and refinish the razor literally with your finest stone in five minutes
2) for stones that don't have good initial sharpness, like many coticules or some other barber hones. the stone will set the geometry and the linen will gradually create a smooth edge as it's used. You end up with a shaving edge that is smooth and much more keen than the stone itself could create going just to leather.

I use mine once per week, and shave every day (so the razor sees the linen once every 7 shaves). The razor edge even after 200 shaves is almost the same as it was at the 2nd shave, the honing at that point on some razors is little more than a double check to make sure the geometry is still in shape.

+1 x10....I am a firm believer in exactly what Dave propounds and believes regarding the use of quality Linen strops. That...and progressive stropping on quality leather. He is (IMO) absolutely correct when it comes to the use of 'finishing' Barber Hones (like the Frictionite 00) as well, being able to put a wicked sharp edge on a blade and then 'smoothing' it out with quality linen and leather stropping. I think most people unnecessarily go to the hones much, much too often.