Thread: Help me with strop choices please.

Well, this is what i did. Then hid my card for the rest of the year. Ha.
A member here on the site offered me a Tony Miller Bridal #2 with sheath/cover at a decent price. Then i ordered the Latigo, Buffalo and Roo from SRD.
I will have all the stropping covered and at different draws, i hope. Should be good to go now. The secondarys that are with the SRD are 2 of the standard zippy stuff and one of the cloth. Opted out on the felt.

Anyway, thanks to all who posted comments on what they have and now to wait on the mail man. Then to build a rack for the wall behind the door for my strops.

Pics when im done.

Please report when they come in. I'd be most interested in your reviews.

I got them and will be hanging a rack tonight. Found a Tie rack that will hang them nice. I have a hook I use for stropping already. With these being so new, they are just slick! No draw at all. I think they will need stropped on a while before they start to be anything other than slick. Thought about treating them with something but... Dont want to mess anything up right away.
I'll post a pic later tonight when I get this done. This is my Friday on a Friday. Only happens once every 7 weeks.

So, to others that have SRD strops. Where yours slick too when new? Did you treat them with anything or just keep using and only hand rub to break-in?

I recently ordered an Illinois 361. Sitting at home unopened. I return next week. I plan to put a very light rubbing of Neetsfoot oil on it and rub vigorously with my palm. We'll see. Then again, I might only rub with Palm only.

Here is a quick pic of my strops now hanging. I read that no conditioning is needed on a new strop but... I'll hold off and see if they break-in slowly. Good luck on your 361. I thought about going that route (Illinois) but I wanted to give SRD a good try and now I have. I will say that they went above and beyond. Not sure they would want me to share this but...
When I made my order of 3 strops I wanted to try all 3 of the secondary pieces they offer with the strops. But when I made my order, I didn't include the Felt in my order. I contacted them the next say by eMail as it was a Sunday and asked if they could change my order by replacing one of the poly's with the felt. They did this at no extra charge to me. Then it should have been delivered on a Thursday. But I got it on Wednesday. I will be going to them to check if they sell whatever I might be looking for first before looking for the cheapest cost. Fine Folks!
BTW, The lower hook is for stropping. The upper just for storage. Next is to make some of those shocking colored sleeves for them!

I don't want to forget Sharptonn for parting with a English Bridal Tony Miller. It was very kind of him to help me with my StAD.
Now if I can figure out what to do with the 7 secondary strops I have besides leather. Ha. Don't think they make that many types of Cr0x, lead, Diamond paste, ETC... Maybe they do but I'm not sure what to do with them all now. Might give the Lead a try if I can figure out how it works.

I will post a pic on the "what are you working on" thread as i just made socks/sleaves for all my strops.

As far as how the strops are working right now...
The Latigo 8s starting to have a nice draw to it. Not a bunch or excessive but its getting more and more all the time.
The Buffalo (#3) is still silky smooth with no draw. Ive done around 500 laps on it so far.
The Roo, slick as snot. No drag at all and sounds crispy.

Now im no pro when it comes to strops but im thinking things will get more draw with time. I still happy with my purchases and i have to say that the hardware used in these are top notch. I couldnt have found so nice of hardware myself and love how they are working out.

JMHO...

Hey Gasman, after a year with your variety of strops, how do you feel about them?

Wow, i guess it has been about a year. Huh.
I have two favorites. The boar i got from Tom and the Buffalo from SRD. The boar being a 2.5 inch makes it a little more slow to strop on as i have to pay attension to get the X stroke right. The draw is minimal and that is what i find i like. The Buffalo is also a fast strop but being 3" wide i dont have to do the X's so I strop freely at the speed i enjoy. Im not a slow stropper but im not the fastest either. As long as i get it right i do what feels right.

My next fav would be the kanayama 70k. But i try to leave it alone as much as i can. It will last forever this way and i can still enjoy it from time to time. The feel of the 70k strop is like velvet. Hard to imagine a piece of leather feeling this way. And with the old man who makes them getting older all the time, he isnt going to be around for a lot of more years zo im saving it as much as i can. I keep thinking of getting another and keeping it in the box unused, but thats just not me.

So there you go. My opiniin.for what its worth. Im come to the conclusion that stropping and what strop to use is a personnal perferance. What i enjoy may not make the next guy as happy when stropping. I like a fast strop as long as it still holds me back (draw) just a touch. The Roo is just too fast so I do have a limit.

For a while i was trying the progressive stropping. And with me and the fact i can do 300 laps without tiring.worked out fine but i really wasnt seeing any difference in the outcome. Start with a lot of draw and finish with none. Then to the 70k kamayama for the soft finish. It was just a lot of stropping and no help. But as they say, its a personnal opinion. Maybe it works for others, but not me.

With time, that Roo will become like your 70k.
Silky smooth, and fast with a light draw. The plus side of it for me is, it conforms to a smiling razor and eliminates the need to do X strokes.

If you want to lessen the amount of space on your rack, Jerry. Just double your strops together...like this.



As for a leaded strop, I prefer flax linen, some prefer it on leather. Its the least aggressive medium, like Cr/Ox. Just polishes the very apex of the bevel. It can be seen in a loupe, and I only use it after a fresh honing, just before the leather progression. ( heavy-fast ). But I've been finding myself going to a Unknown Russian Tanned strop, after the leaded linen, then progressing to others to finish.

Typically 80-100 passes, each strop.

BTW. my Red Latigo has the heaviest draw, next to my Vladimir Savin, Russian strop. Of course its Russian tanned..



Like said...to each his own.