Thread: I bought a Kanayama Cordovan Strop 20000 w/linen backing today from JNS.

Originally Posted by Obie

Gentlemen,
Kanayama are sweet strops. In the past, I've had the 70000 and 80000. Currently I have the 30000 and the 80000. Since I prefer a mild draw, especially because of the arthritis in my hands, the Kanayama is perfect for me. Also, I love the way the strop's leather hugs the blade. Great stuff.

Hey Obie, thanks for the post! In case you haven't guess, I'm Ed Urbanski, and I had the privilege of meeting you and seeing your wonderful shaving den a couple of weeks ago. I have gotten the "straight razor bug"!

Originally Posted by ironmaned1987

Hey Obie, thanks for the post! In case you haven't guess, I'm Ed Urbanski, and I had the privilege of meeting you and seeing your wonderful shaving den a couple of weeks ago. I have gotten the "straight razor bug"!

Yes, of course, Ed, I was delighted to meet you. Welcome to the straight razor world. Once you hone your skill, you'll never look back at any other form of shaving, except maybe for an occasional double edge or single edge razor shave.

I'm not making a judgement on anyone's equipment here .. Just a personal observation.

One of the things I like about the #3 is the thin, supple leather. I favor this in all my strops, as I like to vary how taut I pull the strop to how much work I feel the edge needs..

As an aside, I only wanted one strop to use day in and day out. For one reason or another it hasn't worked out that way. I've got more strops than I should have here, in my quest for the Holy Grail, which, as one could guess, still eludes me! I'm very close, but I've come to the conclusion that I should have recognized from the start ... As in glorious Persian rugs, perfection only exists in the hands of God.

Interestingly enough, Druid, I have the 80000 and the 30000 and love both, but the 30000 feels a wee bit better. I really like this strops. These are great strops. I've had a vast variety of strops through the years, including Neil Miller, Bison and Tolorf, but the Kanayama is special.

I have the #3 and the 90000 and the surface is the same on both. The 90K is just longer and wider and thicker and comes with the suede component. Personally I think they are the most perfect strops out there. Currently I'm negotiating to get a Raven Strop so when I get it there will be an epic battle of the strops-har har.

I'd urge caution in using the fabric part. My understanding (and we have discussed this much) is those were selected because it is the best material he can get locally. That strop needs to be broken in before use and that involves a lot of work with washing and pounding. I've never used his fabric as I have a quality true linen strop.

And yes all strops do the exact same thing equally well as long as they are quality pieces.

I assume you're referring to this (or similar):

=====How To Make Softer Canvas Strop=====

It is kind of hard work, but if you will try to do it, please do like below:

Put on body soap (solid one), and wash it away

Put on the canvas strop on the wood board, and pounding with wooden hammer on the round portion of the wood hammer side to kill the tough fibers.

Washing by brush

Rubbing solid body soap

Washing by brush

Wrapping by Nagura to polish the surface of the canvas strop

Washing by washing machine

Drying at shade a couple days

Putting on body soap by brush

Wrapping by beer bottle strongly

Please do the all above processes three times

I'm not advocating that anyone else do what I have done, but after examining the Kanayama canvas component side-by-side against my SRD premium canvas component, I have chosen to forsake the previous instructions and just use the strop. I have used it daily for the past couple of weeks and have seen no ill effects from this usage - either under the microscope or on my face. I have used it on everything from a 5/8 Dubl Duck to an 8/8+ W & B FBU with no problems at all.

I figure that if any issues do arise, I can hone them out and report on it here. No skin off anyone's back but my own. However, if (as I believe) there continues to be no issues with using this strop, then it will be of some use for the forum to hear about it. Likewise, if it chips my edges down to the base of the bevel it will also be useful to report that here - and I'm not to proud to say when I've made a mistake.

I'll keep you all posted!

sqabxr, do you mean that you are using the canvas component on the Kanayama strop as it came? Obie, do you use the canvas component on your 2 Kanayama strops, without treating them first? This is interesting because I didn't know the canvas component on the Kanayama strops are a problem. Please clarify this for me. Thank you!

What do you mean by wrapping by Nagura? Do you mean rubbing?

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I have the #3 and the 90000 and the surface is the same on both. The 90K is just longer and wider and thicker and comes with the suede component. Personally I think they are the most perfect strops out there. Currently I'm negotiating to get a Raven Strop so when I get it there will be an epic battle of the strops-har har.

I'd urge caution in using the fabric part. My understanding (and we have discussed this much) is those were selected because it is the best material he can get locally. That strop needs to be broken in before use and that involves a lot of work with washing and pounding. I've never used his fabric as I have a quality true linen strop.

And yes all strops do the exact same thing equally well as long as they are quality pieces.

The raven is quite nice. I don't think it's as good as a kanyama though.

Well, different material and quite rare so we'll see.