Thread: Strop break in?

Originally Posted by pinklather

Who's or what strop are we talking about? If you doctor tells you you have too much money & you go buy a costly Kanayama - very little 'break-in' is needed - that's part of what you paid for. The SRD premiums need little or none. The Illinois - more. A pc of latigo from a leather shop - think 1500 strokes (don't have to be all at once). The preparing & break-in always depends on the starting point - which often has some (not completely) to do w/ cost, reputation of the maker, etc. Latigo has a low reputation, but well broken in, is very effective. 'Not the easiest to learn stropping with, due to being a bit grabby at first. (don't ask how I know) Stropping remains an area we seem to have the least knowledge, confidence that can be generalized from one strop/blade/individual to another. I tend to want to listen most to some of the more experienced voices there - Tony Miller, Lynn, formerly Neil Miller. I pay alot of attention to AFDavis on the topic. For new shavers, it would be hard to overstate the value of AFDavis' short vid - used to be posted on the home page - on the all important 'flip' at the end of the stroke. That one part led to the demise of 5 of my strops. Glen's old thread on strops was freaking priceless - about not needing fancy or magic material, etc. His old, scarred, 30 y.o. Illinois remained his daily driver.

pinklather, we are talking about my strop. I purchased it from SRD it is a 3" Latigo. I was reading another thread and strop break in was mentioned and I started to just wonder if I missed something and if I had done something wrong. I did nothing to my strop when I un boxed it aside from hang it and use it. I was only asking because I didn't want to further damage my strop if I had already begun too. Thanks for the insight much appreciated.

Just want to say thanks so much for all the helpful info. This is a great forum with a ton of super nice people and I appreciate when a newb like myself asks a question there are no high and mighty rude responses, just solid info. Thanks all

Taken from the perspective of a SRD Latigo fan boy, The draw on this strop is heavy for some and as a result garners distaste by much of the community. My experience with Latigo is it benefits from use, and I use it a lot. When new, these strops are already on the oily side, no need ever to add conditioner to it. The draw being initially heavy calms down over time. The surface velvety at first becomes almost glass like after many months of use. For me heavy draw strops help with control. Think of it this way, draw is friction, the more you bear down on the razor the more draw you get. The strop helped me keep downward pressure on the light side and kept my stropping speed under control. I get good feedback from these strops and really enjoy using them. I also find that the latigo leather is heavy and is very resistant to deformation. Some of my other strops of a thinner nature show slight signs of cupping or curving and other surface anomalies. A great stropping leather in my opinion that really improves with age.