Thread: Help with linen coating

Originally Posted by Geezer

Found it! Over the last few years it is a great strop dressing. A bit dusty at first but wears in well. I later added a bit more tallow soft soap. Mixed in a slow cooker I have enough for a couple generations.

A combination of the two formulas:
From: Standing Orders, Forms of Returns, Reports, Entries, etc. of the Queen's Dragoons Guards; 1795 -
"Take 6 pounds of the finest pipe-clay, pound it very small, put it in a tub, and put to it about 5 gallons of cold water. Let it remain for two or three days, stirring it now and then. Then take 6 ounces of gum dragon, and put it into 4 quarts of boiling water, and cover it up close for two or three days. When the gum is well dissolved, take a fine hair sieve, and strain it into the pipe-clay, and keep stirring the pipe-clay well all the time you are doing this. Then take half an ounce of stone blue, and dissolve it well amongst your colouring (this gives a clear gloss to the belts). Let it all remain one day longer, and it will be fit for use, putting it on lightly and evenly with a sponge."

1788 Strop Formula reduced amounts

From: The Discipline of the Light Horse by Capt. Hinde, 1778 (pg 559) -
"A Receipt for the White Belts. Take 1 ½ lb of Pipe-clay, 3 Quarts of Water, ¼ lb of Best Glue, ¼ lb of White Soap, Boil the Soap and Glue first, till dissolved, then Mix it with the Pipe-Clay, and Boil all together for a Quarter of an Hour; when Cold put it on a with a Sponge in the usual manner, and when Dry Rub it with a Glass-Bottle."
20%

*12 OZ. pipe cLAY

*1.5 QUARTS WATER

*1 oz fish glue

*1 oz tallow soap...more added later
Added from the later recipe to the early recipe while mixing...
+ 1 oz. Liquid laundry bluing..UV whitening agent (stone blue)

+ 1 oz. of Gum Tagacanth (Leather sealant)

Modern equivalents
From the 1795 formula, to the above, I added the:
Stone Blue, 1 0z....modern day clothes bluing for whitening.
Gum Tragacanth....Eco-Flo Gum Tragacanth; used in leather working as an edge sealant

Pipe Clay is now Finest Ball clay..like porcelain clay

Adding a abrasive later and mixing it in well while warm will work. I have tried a couple with small batches of the original mix. Here you are on your own.

Have fun!
~Richard
PS. After mixing store the mass in a seal able covered container with a plastic wrap pressed firmly onto the surface to prevent deterioration..mold growth, etc.

if I have it right you have made both of these individually. To the first you added soap and to the second you added the gum and the stone blue. If this is correct only the second has glue in it that would be a different ingredient, Which therefore do you find to be closest to the original coatings found on these strops. And I was wrong it turns out everything is hard to get and will probably need to be ordered online. The ball clay I might be able to get but it seems to come in different varieties and am trying to figure out which will be the finest. Did you pound the ball clay as mentioned in the recipe or was it used as is. Also looking at the glue recipe it says glue amount by weight. Would this be the old hide glue which was a dry product which you just added water to when needed. From my research it was pretty common and was stored as granuls or sheets and made up as needed so would have been readily available