Thread: Fire hose strops

Wash in the washer with some Oxi-clean. Once it clean it makes excellent secondary stropping material.

Yea, the grit is a problem, a few years ago I tried using some used seatbelts and never could get all the grit out. I would expect a firehose has a lot more grit in it.

And I don’t know if it would be better that modern alternatives. I have had real good luck with Polyester Canvas Sailcloth. I just cut it and leave the ends raw, they fray a bit but not much.

I've service tested fire hose that was 1 call old, and it lost pressure at the coupler (the hose was perfect), so the hose had to be put out of service. Just faulty hose. This would probably work well. Even older hose is scrubbed after every use with soap & brush, and it should be well taken care of in most fire halls. Fire hose comes in many sizes, 38, 45, or 50mm (1-1/2, 1-3/4, or 2 inches). Bigger hand lines are 65 or 77mm (2-1/2 or 3 inch).

Originally Posted by Firefighter2

I've service tested 1-1/2" fire hose that was 1 call old, and it lost pressure at the coupler (the hose was perfect), so the hose had to be put out of service. Just faulty hose. This would probably work well. Even older hose is scrubbed after every use with soap & brush, and it should be well taken care of in most fire halls.

I would believe the inside of the outer cover, or the outside of the inner core would be fine to use for stropping, cause i dont see grit coming through that tight a weave.
Nothing is frayed along the length of this hose. Just alot of dust, and faded in comparison to the inside of the hose.[emoji6]

Originally Posted by outback

I would believe the inside of the outer cover, or the outside of the inner core would be fine to use for stropping, cause i dont see grit coming through that tight a weave.
Nothing is frayed along the length of this hose. Just alot of dust, and faded in comparison to the inside of the hose.[emoji6]

Yes, there is a jacket over the inner hose which would not be exposed to the elements.

Thanks i appreciate your experience with the subject.

Mike

No problem, only my experience lies with using it as fire hose, not a strop. Might have to try it.

What I did was polish a bevel on a MAAS, pasted a piece of sailcloth. But you could just paste a piece of cardboard. 50-100 laps will remove all the stria on the bevel, then strop on your cleaned hose, in my case it was seat belt. If you see scratches on the polished bevel, there is still grit on the strop.

Once it gets in to the fabric & weave, I don’t think you can ever, get it all out, but give it a try…

Sounds good.
Thanks

Why bother? For a final, after honing strop, use a pad of newsprint, or half thickness of a magazine. The strop is the difference between a nice shave and a rash.
You can buy junk strops, hammer the seller down for bad leather but look for nice linen. Save the linen component. Wash it thoroughly, as above, and use it prior to a shave.
~Richard