Thread: improving/removing draw on/from your strop

so i found that the leather that i used for my freshly self made strof was very very slick and the razor glided over the surface with no resistance what so ever... so i wanted to get some draw... i read the forum and saw the lathering techninque...

so the leather being cheap i thought why not... i can make another one if i ruin this one...

so i built a lather up... very dry as instructed from my tabac soap as instructed (should be a soap) and applyed it with my hands because the brush did not do the job well on the strop... imediately i took a wine bottle and rubbed the surfaceuntill there was no lather left and then reapplyed what was left from the lather and then rubbed some more and after the lather was gone some more... but in total i did not rub for more that a couple of minutes because the lather would dissapear quickly...

my mistake was that i did not set the strop on a flat surface first so i suggest you do not do the same mistake i did...

after i rubbed back and forth with the bottle i cleaned the surface with paper tissues and let dry over night ...

next day i stropped up my blade and found 2 interesting facts:

1) the blade would get some soap residue from the strop on it after stropping (even after i rubbed my hand thoroughly attempting to clean it)

2)the draw was so much that if i stropped fast the razor would be pulled back almost if the tip of the blade was pulled back by something... from there i decided that was too much draw... it stood in the way of learning fast stropping and it encouraged a tight grip on the blade which translates into stropping with alot of pressure which is not good!

SO ... i also noticed that because i bottle stropped my strop hanging and not on a flat surface it made the leather surface curve a little bit so that the blade did not make full contact with the strop while stropping so i wanted to make it close to perfectly flat... so i experimented :

first i took a screwdriver and stropped with that ... no improvement only a little cup

second i layed the strop flat and i took the wine bottle and stropped it hard about 100 times (give or take some) and ... voila! now the straightness of the stropping surface is close to 100% and the stropping seems to me to be much more effective... also it made the leather a little more supple and most of all in reduced the draw... i could see the soap residue showing up on the bottle and i suppose thats what made the blade stick so hard while stropping ...

After all this the draw was very good like ... the leather encouraged the glide of the razor and fast stropping but you could hold the razor lightly with the fingers but at the same tim you could feel the feedback and that the strop did what is supposed to do...

And the last experiment i did occured while i tryed to remove a nick from the leather with 600 wet dry automotive sandpaper ... i dont know if there is any difference but i bought mine from an auto repair shop... so after i saw what i have done to that spot and how velvety it felti thought the same thing as before ... if ruined ... ill make a new one ... so i lightly sanded the surface of the leather and now it feels very velvety and i realy like the finish like this .... the draw its the same ... but the feel is different and a little bit nicer i must say ...

So... i do not regret doing any of those things only that i did not lay the strop flat while lathering ... i feel happy with the end result and please note this was done during a couple of days ...

if anyone wants some pictures i only have the before and after sanding and i will happily upload some if you find it worth while reading all this

thanks for your patience reading and excuse my english its not my first language

Warm Regards,
Iulian

iulian,

The best part of this hobby to some of us is the endless amounts of experimenting that can be done.

Thanks for posting your experience. Any photos of your home brewed strop?

-Rob

Originally Posted by sicboater

iulian,

The best part of this hobby to some of us is the endless amounts of experimenting that can be done.

Thanks for posting your experience. Any photos of your home brewed strop?

-Rob

Your welcome rob,

Here is the hole process documented with lots of pics

If you want i can take some pics as is right now after i put it through sword and fire :P

Best regards,
Iulian

You can also build up a lather and brush it on the strop and use the glass bottle trick. It helps break in a strop very well, it's an old barber's trick. Have fun!

EDIT: I somehow missed that you used Tabac on the strop too, oops!

Originally Posted by Disburden

You can also build up a lather and brush it on the strop and use the glass bottle trick. It helps break in a strop very well, it's an old barber's trick. Have fun!

EDIT: I somehow missed that you used Tabac on the strop too, oops!

you are right but i found that when i brushed the lather on the strop, the water that was in the brush transfered to the strop and the lather was dissapearing fast and i thought that if i wet the strop too much its not good so i put the thick lather on with my fingers... but it definately works both ways just have to find what suits you,

i know i got carried away and wrote a lot

Thanks

Julian, I haven't tried this yet though I keep promising myself I will. Here is an old thread on the topic. Check out honedright's post # 18. He says Williams works real well and that he rubs the bottle on the strop for 15 minutes. I will have to get around to doing this as I have a vintage dubl duck that is stiff as a board.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Julian, I haven't tried this yet though I keep promising myself I will. Here is an old thread on the topic. Check out honedright's post # 18. He says Williams works real well and that he rubs the bottle on the strop for 15 minutes. I will have to get around to doing this as I have a vintage dubl duck that is stiff as a board.

I know that thread Jimmy, but first you should try lying the strop on a flat surface and do 100 or 200 laps just with the wine bottle or something similar and see how that feels because i found that this is what makes the leather a little more soft and i feel that the lathering just improves draw...dramatically...and if you do it for 15 min i dont know what the result will be if i got too much draw in 5-8 mins tops...

but you should try both see what works for you

Cheers

Just bought the bottle of Night Train .... now I have to finish it .

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Just bought the bottle of Night Train .... now I have to finish it .

Ok but wait 24 hours after you finish it and before you use it

Tell us how it went after that

Originally Posted by iulian

Ok but wait 24 hours after you finish it and before you use it

Tell us how it went after that

Right now I have a headache and I can't find my strop. Kidding aside, I have a strop that I made from some hide that a friend bought from HandAmerican a couple of years ago. He moved to Alaska and left a bunch of stuff so I got the horse hide. The strop I made was treated with neatsfoot oil but it is slick as they come. No draw whatever. I am going to get a puck of Williams and give this a try and report back.