Thread: dressing for linen side of strop question

I use a red russian strop with the yellow tube dressing for the leather side.what is the best for the linen side? recomendations and suggestions appreciated thx...

You may apply an absolute minimum amount of white Dovo paste on your linen side and you would be well advised to note that many of us recommend using no paste on your strops.

After a proper honing, 60 to 100 laps on your leather strop is a good idea and after you have shaved with that edge, 60 to 100 laps on your linen side followed by 60 to 100 laps on your leather side is acceptable.

Paste on your hanging strops will not necessarily improve your razor edge. Barbers have historically used only a minimum of white paste on their linen side and only a minimum of Dovo black paste on the leather side and many have opted for no paste which is what most of us would probably recommend.

I say, keep it clean, no paste.............

Pasted strops usually refer to pasted flatbed strops and they are used as a finish strop for a freshly honed razor. Other members can advise you about pasted flatbed strops.

+1 with Jerry. I don't use any pastes on my daily strop. I have a flatbed with chrom-ox, a paddle with diamond pastes and a hanging felt with diamond spray. I only use the pastes once in awhile ....but that is just me, others have their own routines and mine are subject to change.

There you have it as the British say!!

A pasted strop is reserved for a freshly honed razor edge and a clean, unpasted strop is reserved for an edge dressing in between shaves, period.

What a beautifully simple rule!!!

K.I.S.S.

I'll bet Jimmy feels much the same way................!!!

thanks 4 the help, ya really dont learn a whole lot about honing and stropping in barber college.

In counterpoint, let me say that I completely disagree with the above two gentlemen.

I put Dovo white on my canvas strop, and I laid it on thick enough to fill in the weave (which is what it is designed to do).


It has a very mild abrasive quality, far less than that of Cromox, and daily use is not only allowed, but strongly encoraged! Daily use of the Dovo white keeps your razors in top form.



Here's a thread with more opinions on the matter.

From Classic's website

Canvas Strop



The Canvas or Linen Strop is generally used before final stropping on the leather strop. It's purpose is to provide a very honing to the razor's edge, replacing most of the keenness which was lost in it's last use. While it has proven effective for this purpose, it will not sharpen a dull razor but will extend the period between honings.

This strop is composed of high quality linen or silk woven into a fine or coarse texture.



A fine-textured linen strop is most desirable for putting a lasting edge on a razor. To obtain the best results, a new canvas strop should be thoroughly broken in. A daily hand finish will keep its surface smooth and ready for stropping. For a hand finish, the canvas strop is given the following treatment:

• Attach the swivel end of the strop to a fixed point, such asanail.
  
• Lay the strop flat on a smooth and level surface and hold the unsecured end firmly.
• Rub a bar of dry soap over the strop, working it well intothe grain of the canvas.
• Rub a smooth glass bottle over strop several times, each time forcing the soap into the grain and also removing excess soap.

Many modern Linen strops often come from the manufacturer pre-treated with a very fine chalk-based abrasive. These strops are generally quite stiff when new and do not require any break-in though their performance does improve with use. Over time the chalk abrasive may be worn away. It can be replaced with Linen Strop Paste, which is itself chalk-based and usually is either white or gray in color.

Seraphim

How many tubes of white paste did it take to cover the cotton strop to that degree?

Thanks,
Tony

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Seraphim

How many tubes of white paste did it take to cover the cotton strop to that degree?

Thanks,
Tony

One entire tube of Dovo white does a strop. Have you ever tried it, Tony?

I will now!

I have the white paste but honestly never used it much. After working with a bunch of NOS strops, all of which are coated with chalk I am interested in trying to achieve the same thing.

Tony

interesting. is the idea then that once you use a tube to coat the whole linen side, you dont need to add any regularly? or you need one to coat it, and another to add regularly? when I used the dovo white on dovo linen, I needed FAR less than a whole tube to get it what seemed pretty well coated.

also, I understand that "pastes" are best for use smoothing/finishing after honing, but does that apply to the dovo yellow? that just seemed like a yellow/fat leather conditioner. hard to imagine that could have any disadvantage, other than keeping the leather nice and moist and supple, and maybe increasing draw/friction a bit?

and while we're ont he subject, anyone have any experience with the T-I sharpening paste? (see e.g. Thiers-Issard Razor Sharpening Paste) sounds like a mix of a CROX-type thing with a diamond paste. not sure what micron this corresponds to, but seems like a nice easy way to refresh the razor. but is it really possible to effectively combine the sharpening and smoothing/finishing into one step? in general with such things, shortcuts that try to combine steps just never work as well, in my experience. (you can't combinee sanding 100-grit and then 200-grit into one step.)