Thread: Cleaning my linen strop

Just do what you've been doing for 40 years, it's worked so far. Guess or you wouldn't keep saying you gave been shaving with a straight that long, so keep doing that. Tc

I would not paste a strop, unless you are sure you want to use that paste. If you want to experiment, paste a piece of cardboard, (inside of a cereal box), just finger paint 3in, X’s on it, let dry and strop.

Sounds like metal polish, which most are Aluminum Oxide but will leave a harsh edge on a razor.

Originally Posted by Glock27

Are there any places which have 12K and 20K hones that don't cost over $100? Forty years of straight razor use does not qualify expertise in SR's, that is why I am asking. I have had a long rugged road. I have a Fran Swaty stone, a Chinese 12K I had to flatten (using an engineers straight edge to approximate flat, measuring vertical, horizontal and diagonal). I also have a Krystolo stone (antique) which the instructions say to stroke the SR 5 times, using it like a hone. I also have the Tormex PA 70 past rated at 3 microns which I have not used, however, I have read numerous reviews of it as a stropping compound. Hel-l-l-l-l-lp! Forty years of SR use does not make one an expert, it's why I am asking.

The Franz swaty would be used like the Krystolo. If you feel the razor tugging during a shave, stop and do 4 or 5 strokes, and see if it isn't better. Strop and enjoy the shave.

The Chinese 12k is hit or miss. Some of them are good for razor finishing. Others not so much.

You should be able to get a really good edge off that Swaty with very few strokes using just that, linen, and leather unless your blade needs work on a coarser grit stone.

Thanks Marshal. I appreciate the reply. Just because I have spent nigh on 40 years using an SR does not qualify me to knowing what I am doing. I have been learning a lot here which I was never aware of.

Just a few things, re washing linen strops, kanayama suggest on their literature a method, (Quite lengthy) telling of how to soften or break in the canvas piece, it involved scrubbing, soap etc, hitting the canvas with a mallet, then putting it through the washing machine a few times....Dead set true. I followed those guidelines fairly well, and my canvas piece is lovely and receptive to a razor, so Honedright mate, water isn't a problem for the cordovan strop makers who use linen. (Including Horween). Just a small bit of advice re pasted strops. IMHO I would never put any paste or anything on the canvas portion of my primary strop/s. I had a couple of mates, who wanted some balsa based leather, so we chucked in and bought a few strops, cut back the leather to glue on to the balsa to use as a bench strop, so i was left with three linen pieces from a 3 inch strop, and I have put crox on one in powder for as mention back a page, and some Cerium on another. I also messed around with using chamois, synthetic window cleaning fine grained cloth, gluing it to balsa 10 x 3 block and put crox on it as well and used it as Dr matt did with his nano-cloth. So just keep your pastes and potions away from you regular strop/s, at the end of the day, you don't go to the crox every day. You need clean primary linen to prep your blade for stropping on your leather. I don't as I mentioned use crayons, too much mystery as to whats in it for me, and oil on linen is a bad thing. Also the Kanyama strops as great as they are at 68mm wide, their canvas is very average, stiff as a board new and are 65mm wide, yeah only 3mm, but it seems dumb to me, and it does irritate me a tad, when I have to whack in a tiny x on the canvas in the morning, when you go to the leather the blade at say 2 3/4 sits just nice. Kanayama great strop, poor canvas, (Great suede piece though!)

This just goes to show that there is so damned much regarding SR's and all their accouterments to muss with. I am a strong advocate for K.I.S.S., but obviously, what do I know?
It seems to me we should arrive at one stone to hone with, one strop to finish, and one soap to lather with. How did our forefathers handle all this?