Thread: Cloth material used?

Good afternoon!

I understand that most strops and that proper stropping usually includes the use of a cloth strop to start with. That can range from linen, Vinyl, cotton and canvas.

That material I am going to experiment with is made of hemp. It it used primarily as a chair backing, the straps that cross in between the wood. I have a huge roll of this as it is used frequently in our upholstery shop. It has kind of the same feel as burlap but is more, far more tightly woven.

I am curious as to whether or not anyone else has experimented with this or a similar fabric, their experiance and if it should be suitable for regular use.

Thank you!

Paul

Hi Paul, I've never had the opportunity to try hemp. All you can do is give it a go and see how it works for you. Of course if you have also tried the usual substances you mentioned you'll have more of a basis for comparison. OTOH, one way or the other if it works well that is all that matters. Could be the next big thing.

When I am travelling, which is always on a motor bike, not a lot of room for for all the gear so, it,s just razor, brush and a stick of palmolive shaving soap. I just strop the razor on my denim jeans before shaving, with pretty good results.
So try the hemp nothing ventured nothing gained!

Paul,
Is the material you want to use hemp or sisal. I know sisal is commonly found in upholstry webbing to go on the wooden frames for chairs and sofas.
Dovo use a finely woven hemp on many of their nicer strops but it seems not every model they offer has the same cloth material.

Tony

I have plenty of sisal, but I am not too terribly impressed with it as it has larger than the threads organic left overs in it, possibly leaf material or stem or something.

we have both hemp and sisal and I went the way of hemp as it looked "cleaner" and I know that hemp can get plenty soft if worked enough.

so I went the way of hemp because it'pretty strong stuff and I have an excess amount of it. at least 500 feet in giant rolls.

Also the weave isn't very fine. not like canvas fine, but a lot tighter than burlap. The coarsness of the weave is what I am concerend about as I do not wish to damage my blades. I should try to get a picture of it and post it.

I have used hemp webbiing and didn't like it I found that the weave was not fine enough for stropping and the stray hemp fibers needed to be burnt before I could attempt to strop. Now i'm sure hemp would work just fine if you could source a fine tight weave. Here is a pic of the hemp used.