Thread: Conditioning Kanoyama Canvas: Iwasaki

The stop was bone dry this morning, so I did not let it dry ‘2-3 days’, there was just no point in it. The weather yesterday was mid 80’s F, breezy, sunny, and 30% humidity, so it wasn’t going to get any drier than it was this morning.

I lathered it up and rolled it with a bottle 3 times. The purpose of this is unclear from the translation. I suppose that it could be for 2 reasons, if you can think of others, please let us know.

1. It stretches and flattens the strop one final time, with the soap lubricating the fibers. The strop is flatter at the edge ‘bead’ than my user, which is a good thing I think.

2. The lather is intended to be left in the strop serving as something like the Dovo white paste and similar stuff that we see in vintage linens and cottons. I rinsed it out. Soap is not in itself harmful to steel, but it can hold moisture as we know, and if you don’t clean all the soap residue off your razor, it will patina. I didn’t want to have to clean the razor (again) after stropping on canvas so I rinsed the soap out. I was using MdC which rinses very cleanly. I can always re-lather it or rub it with the bar soap, and maybe I’ll do that on one side and see if it makes a difference vs clean.

Observations and going forward:

The strop is now as limber as my machine washed strop.

It did shrink about 1/2” or 12mm during the process. It’s the same length as my machine washed strop though I kneaded and stretched that one as it dried.

The edge bead is flatter than my user, probably due to the mallet - I could tell that the edge bead flattened after being tapped with the mallet in step 2.

There’s not much difference that I can tell between machine washed and this process except that the edge beads are flatter. You could always do the mallet thing and roll it with the bottle while it’s damp out of the machine.

The end cap did not come off.

I’m undecided whether to raise a nap with the Atoma plate, but probably will. It mostly wears off over time anyway.

Any suggestions, ideas, comments?

Thanks a bunch for a very useful post.

I do disagree with your reasoning to get rid of the soap. In my limited experience I have noticed some sort of wax/soap in all my linens.
A number of years ago I went to the Marvy Co. which is a few miles from me and long story short I walked away with a pile of NOS linen strops. They are all waxed/soaped.
I have never seen any damage to my razors that I could attribute to the linen part of my strop.

Just my 2¢

Originally Posted by randydance062449

Thanks a bunch for a very useful post.

I do disagree with your reasoning to get rid of the soap. In my limited experience I have noticed some sort of wax/soap in all my linens.
A number of years ago I went to the Marvy Co. which is a few miles from me and long story short I walked away with a pile of NOS linen strops. They are all waxed/soaped.
I have never seen any damage to my razors that I could attribute to the linen part of my strop.

Just my 2¢

You’re most welcome sir!

I think all the old linens/fabrics I have also have some sort of treatment on them but I doubt it’s soap unless the end user put it on. I’m cleaning an old piece now that the white ‘stuff’ had hardened to the point that the strop felt grainy and visible chunks came off when hand rubbed or the cloth flexed. I machine washed, cleaned, soaked it in lacquer thinner, and still, when I put a test Gold Dollar on it, small straight shiny sections would appear at the apex. Still not clean enough, so now it’s getting soaked in methanol to try and get the rest of the old compound out. The first soaking was dirty with scum floating on top. That’s not to say all of it is bad or needs to be removed, but this one had the compound hardened and or dirty to the point remediation is necessary if I want to use it. I could just use my Tony Miller or Kanoyama, but it’s kind of fun to clean ip a 100 year old linen and return it to service, though there’s no real reason to spend that much effort on it.

I’ve talked with my coticule friends (who prefer flax linen) and all are using their Torloff, Westholme, Tony Miller, etc without any white paste, soap etc and are happy with the results. My Kanoyama that I’m using with the Sub Cero with 110 shaves is clean. I wonder what the purpose of the fabric dressing really was, I’ve never seen anything about why it’s there to begin with. Did it contribute to the function, or did it just waterproof, improve the stropping feel, or what?

I think Id be wanting to remove the soap too. I washed mine a couple times and reglued the end piece. It work fine for me. But i just bought another Kanayama so thanks for the thread Steve. I hink I will wash my next one too. Machine wash with fabric softener that is.

So I have an old strop from my Grandfather. Looks like it was marked from a hardware store out of port something Texas. Can't fully make it out. I just added some leather conditioner and then some neatsfoot oil to it years ago to take out the dryness and it still works lovely today. Genuine Shell horsehide. Genuine Royal Quality Linen. The linen I never touched. Has a soft quick slick shine to it, but don't detect any soap or anything in it. This strop based on my Grandfather passing in the late 80's in his 80's and I know from my mom he hadn't used it since see was small and his only strop this is probably a pretty old strop. Close to 100 I would think. It was really in great almost usable condition it just needed softening with oils to go. Now the linen may have something in it and I just don't know, but if there is I think just makes it slicker and softer.

So I have a Kanoyama on the way as you know Steve. I think I will wash the linen in washing machine and do the wood mallet treatment and roll with bottle. Sounds like that will be the easiest yet closet to his technique. May try rubbing with nagura too.

Tom,

Just be sure that the machine isn’t a spindle type, that spindle makes me uncomfortable. TBH, I don’t know if a spindle machine is bad.

Use the mallet on it, especially the edges while it’s still damp and maybe condition the surface with an Atoma plate when it’s dry. You should be good to go.

Takeshi’s instructions are basically Iwasaki’s, but Takeshi mentions machine washing.

I just used mine the way it came out of the wrapper, hard as hell but seemed to not damage the edge and it has softened a lot over the few years I have had it.

I thought about washing it but did not want it to shrink

Originally Posted by Jnatcat

I just used mine the way it came out of the wrapper, hard as hell but seemed to not damage the edge and it has softened a lot over the few years I have had it.

I thought about washing it but did not want it to shrink

You could just cut a little off the leather to make the lengths match Will, rofl.

Originally Posted by Steve56

Tom,

Just be sure that the machine isn’t a spindle type, that spindle makes me uncomfortable. TBH, I don’t know if a spindle machine is bad.

Use the mallet on it, especially the edges while it’s still damp and maybe condition the surface with an Atoma plate when it’s dry. You should be good to go.

Takeshi’s instructions are basically Iwasaki’s, but Takeshi mentions machine washing.

Oh it is a spindle type.

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My best guess is that the linen was treated with wax or hydrogenated tallow (purified and white) and maybe some fine talc or bluing for a white color. All of those were commonly available at the time. The purpose of the wax/tallow would have been to add some stiffness and the talc for coloring and a bit of abrasion.