Thread: Linen stropping effect on honing intervals

Originally Posted by beluga

I agree and am actually on the low range of that with about 5 palm laps for a new Feather AC blade, 5 before a shave with a classic straight and about 3 between passes.
That is after stropping the straight on a Livi loom strop.

But like many aspects of straight shaving, this is a work in progress and may evolve over time, but since I've started using the Livi strop my number of laps has drastically reduced as I found that I can achieve the desired results with much less and there is no tangible advantage in excessive numbers of laps.


B


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Agreed - with any new blade SE blade, around 5 laps on the heel of your hand and it really mellowed it out...I also remember reading the old, "corking the blade", to mellow out a new DE/SE blade. Think that may take a little too much off, and have never tried it....

Originally Posted by Obie

Gentlemen,

I use only leather on the Kanayama followed by palm stropping. This seems to put a sweeter edge on my blades. The linen didn't seem to do much for me, and I no longer have the Kanayama model with the suede component.

The kanayama linen takes some serious breaking in. Link below has some suggestions:
KANOYAMA Kanayama #3 Cordovan Razor Strop

Originally Posted by onimaru55

The kanayama linen takes some serious breaking in. Link below has some suggestions:
KANOYAMA Kanayama #3 Cordovan Razor Strop

Yes, big process but worth it....

I prepped the linen with some light Woolite and three times in the washing machine, hung to dry three times, and final was a light press with the iron. Lost the leather holder on the end, was definitely a long process, but the linen side is very supple now.

As I believe flax was mentioned, the "linen" side on the Tony Miller strop feels like a completely different material, but I find is much easier on the very hollow ground razors.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

The kanayama linen takes some serious breaking in. Link below has some suggestions:
KANOYAMA Kanayama #3 Cordovan Razor Strop

OZ,
Yes, I am in the process of washing the linen component. How it will come out who knows.

Originally Posted by Obie

OZ,
Yes, I am in the process of washing the linen component. How it will come out who knows.

Birnando told me a long time ago that washing the Kanayama linen was the way to go. I hadn't done it yet, I just use the Tony Miller, or another of various vintage linens. My thinking was that if Kanayama left the linen so hard and stiff there must be method to their madness. That is what I get for thinking ..... I'm going to do the washing thing now though and see how it works out.

Gentlemen,

The only component I like on a strop aside from the leather is fine natural linen. The linen on the Kanayama is far from that, and stropping on it is like stropping on an Armadillo. Either way, I have stopped using the linen component, on any strop, or if I use it, I opt for very fine linen and about 10 strokes maximum. Two of my linen strops are coated with CrO. Otherwise, I am for silky leather strops with a gentle draw.