Thread: Kanayama problem and my solution for it

I own two Kanayama strops, a #3 that I've had for over a year, and a #60000 that I bought at the beginning of January this year. The #3 has never had any issues, but the #60000 has developed what can best be described as washboarding - a regular wave in the leather about 1-1/2" peak-to-peak and perpendicular to the axis of the strop. The difference between the high and low points was probably only a couple of thousandths of an inch, but you could definitely feel it while stropping and it was causing the normally slick Kanayama draw to get rather heavy. I couldn't get a decent picture of it so you'll have to make do with my description.

After quite a bit of research and analysis, I decided to disassemble the strop, lay out the leather panel on a smooth table, and treat it with water. I took a clean cotton barber's towel and got it damp (not wet!) with cold water, and another clean towel was folded into a thick square to use for burnishing. The basic procedure was to rub the leather with the damp towel to get the surface uniformly damp, and then to burnish it with the dry towel until completely dry and the surface smooth and flat. This procedure was repeated 3 or 4 times until the surface was dead flat and glassy smooth.

When done, I left it on the table while doing other work for about an hour, buffing it hard with the dry towel every 15 minutes or so to keep the surface smooth and the leather compressed. After reassembly, I gave it a trial run on a Henckels 72-1/2 that I had just honed and it was like a brand new Kanayama - fast, glassy smooth, and quite a relief that it was savable!

I have since stropped a half dozen other razors on it and the fix has held perfectly.

Good result.

I’ve used a similar procedure (outlined in section 5 here http://straightrazorpalace.com/honin...ted-guide.html ) to remove some irregularities in the past.

I have noticed in making my own strops that this washboarding happens in the leather from the belly. I think they are basically stretchmarks.