Thread: Fire hose

Got hold of this disposed fire hose during a clean up. Not sure if this is suitable to be used as a strop. Also not sure if the material is flax linen cotton or otherwise. Any advise would be appreciated.


Garlo60

Is it the old kind with the rubber inside ? One way or the other, just try it out. Should be fine for stropping. People have used everything from blue jeans to newspaper. I used shoulder harness from a NASCAR racing car and it was good.

It looks quite new/unused, this may make the stropping sound harsh.

It is a little difficult to determine the width here, if it is wider than 2.5", I would be slightly concerned about it cupping.

Other than that, seems good to me!

I am doing some firehose now, (12’) and it is a lot of work. The hardest part is getting it clean.

Cut it about an inch longer then finish length to allow for shrinkage, a sharp razor knife and speed square work well for cutting.

The trick to cleaning, is use cold water, use as little soap as possible and remove all the soap.

Soak in cold water wash, I am using 1/4 cup of Borax in a 5-gallon bucket and 1/2 cup of baking soda to soften the water. Soak for a couple hours then remove and scrub with a stiff brush, the hose will get rock hard when wet.

The hose I got, was stored in a fire hose box and looked clean, but a lot of dirt came out and is still coming out of it. Rinse in plain water, soak in clean water and a cup of white vinegar.

Soak overnight, scrub and change your water. And repeat the process until your wash and rinse water are clean.

After drying overnight, and while a bit damp I beat with a clean wooden mallet and roll it over a rolling pin suspended from the ceiling with wire to make it flexible. It also seems to loosen the dirt from the weave.

It takes 2 days for the hose to dry, I am at 5 complete cycles now, and still dirt is coming out of the hose. I have 2 buckets going with 3-4 pieces of hose in each. After the first cleaning, I soak in soap for a day or 2, rinse soak in clear water and vinegar for a day, dry beat, roll and repeat.

Once clean I plan to seal the ends with a fabric seam sealer, a kind of clear thin glue, I bought from the fabric store. Then use leather keepers to hold, 2 in D rings.

Your hose looks like nylon, on mine you can see the flax husks in the weave and the weave is not as tight as yours.

Cut off some frayed threads and see if they will burn, do not light the whole hose, if nylon, it will go up quickly, trust me on that…

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Is it the old kind with the rubber inside ? One way or the other, just try it out. Should be fine for stropping. People have used everything from blue jeans to newspaper. I used shoulder harness from a NASCAR racing car and it was good.

It's wider than 3 inches

Garlo60

Originally Posted by Euclid440

I am doing some firehose now, (12’) and it is a lot of work. The hardest part is getting it clean.

Cut it about an inch longer then finish length to allow for shrinkage, a sharp razor knife and speed square work well for cutting.

The trick to cleaning, is use cold water, use as little soap as possible and remove all the soap.

Soak in cold water wash, I am using 1/4 cup of Borax in a 5-gallon bucket and 1/2 cup of baking soda to soften the water. Soak for a couple hours then remove and scrub with a stiff brush, the hose will get rock hard when wet.

The hose I got, was stored in a fire hose box and looked clean, but a lot of dirt came out and is still coming out of it. Rinse in plain water, soak in clean water and a cup of white vinegar.

Soak overnight, scrub and change your water. And repeat the process until your wash and rinse water are clean.

After drying overnight, and while a bit damp I beat with a clean wooden mallet and roll it over a rolling pin suspended from the ceiling with wire to make it flexible. It also seems to loosen the dirt from the weave.

It takes 2 days for the hose to dry, I am at 5 complete cycles now, and still dirt is coming out of the hose. I have 2 buckets going with 3-4 pieces of hose in each. After the first cleaning, I soak in soap for a day or 2, rinse soak in clear water and vinegar for a day, dry beat, roll and repeat.

Once clean I plan to seal the ends with a fabric seam sealer, a kind of clear thin glue, I bought from the fabric store. Then use leather keepers to hold, 2 in D rings.

Your hose looks like nylon, on mine you can see the flax husks in the weave and the weave is not as tight as yours.

Cut off some frayed threads and see if they will burn, do not light the whole hose, if nylon, it will go up quickly, trust me on that…

Thanks for the advise. I tried burning the frails.. It's definitely nylon. It is still OK to use as a strop?

Garlo60

Originally Posted by dinnermint

It looks quite new/unused, this may make the stropping sound harsh.

It is a little difficult to determine the width here, if it is wider than 2.5", I would be slightly concerned about it cupping.

Other than that, seems good to me!

It's wider than 3 inches. Would that be an issue?

Garlo60

Originally Posted by GaryLbv1974

It's wider than 3 inches. Would that be an issue?

Garlo60

You've got plenty of it, do what Euclid suggested. Cut a piece to the size you want and seal the edges after you clean it. You can take a piece and put it on wood and make a flatbed strop as well. Might be great, might just be average. Never know until you try.

Yes, you can use it, nylon is nice to strop on and takes paste well. It is not as abrasive as flax linen but it will work.

I made several nylon seatbelt type strapping from nylon, polyester, Kevlar and canvas, they all work. And especially well as pasted strops. Polyester Canvas/sailcloth is my favorite pasted strop substrate.

A wide one, nailing or screwing the hose to the ends of a board or piece of MDF, would make a great paddle strop for kitchen knives.

Should work good, just make sure it's clean.