Frustrated with my Illinois 127
I got an Illinois 127 and am not happy with it at all. When I first got it, it was cupped pretty bad and had no grab at all. After a lot of work, I got rid of the cupping and it has decent grab, but its wavy. Most of the wave comes out when I hold it tight for stropping, but the top part still has a some wave to it and does not give good contact with the razor at all.
For this reason, I can only really strop with the lower half and am kind of fed up with it. It was one of the cheaper strops I could find, and am feeling I am getting what I paid for and should probably invest in a better strop.
What is holding me back at this point is the thought that this might be normal for a new strop, and is something to work though.
Here is what I've done.
Lather it to give it more grab and soften it up.
Bottle strop it well over a thousand times to get rid of the cupping.
Daily "hand stropping" to impart oils into it.
Do you think there is hope for this thing, or should I just get another strop? Of course, another option is to keep the hardware and make my own. At this point, I just want a good strop though, so I might not want to risk making a lousy strop.
Frustrated with my Illinois 127
Hello, Markevns:
If it were my strop, I would kindly suggest to myself to either return it for possible replacement or retire it. Life has enough frustration. Why add another one to the rotation?
Regards,
Obie