Thread: Is all flax linen created equal

I have five vintage strops with linen and only the red imp 700c and c-mon look similar but all feel different. I have a vintage firehose strop that a 44/20 had and that is unique feel to. Hope this helps.

I have only found two current sources for flax linen, Europe and India. Most of the pics I have seen of the current flax linen strops look pretty similar and it looks like the European stuff I have found. I have not handled the stuff from India but it does look different than the European. Pretty sure the USA mills have stopped running it a few years ago.

I agree that firehose feels much different, more coarse and louder but does have a unique feel many like. Not sure if it the texture or the heft of it but it does have a certain quality to it that thinner webbing does not have.

Some guys strop holding both cloth and leather together, other holding just one component. Two together helps make up for the give in the thinner webbing style linen.

Of course the word linen has become so generic one can not always be sure just what the actual fiber being used is as everyone seems to be calling it linen now.