DIY Travel 4 Sided Strop

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10-14-2010, 01:47 AM
Muscles

DIY Travel 4 Sided Strop
Hi Guys,
A friend and I are going to make a travel strop some time in the near future. We currently have various hanging strops but want to make a solid travel one. I do lots of small 1 week interstate trips for work so my needs are fairly basic but my friend can be overseas for up to 8 weeks a time. With this in mind we would like to maximise the capabilities of this strop.

Our plan so far:
- Four usable surfaces with one of them hinged
- A storage compartment inside that will accommodate several straights and a shaving brush. We will put foam inside to protect the razors.
- Dimensions of 12"x2" without the handle. The dimensions are based on the cargo that will be stowed inside the compartment but would allow for a decent surface area too.
- A detachable handle, to reduce overall length
- Removable plastic covers for each side to protect surfaces and to stop any pastes travelling to other sides. If we come up with a good enough solution here we may omit the handle.
If you were doing this and wanted to get the most out of the strop what would you put on each of the four sides to create a progression? What would the lowest and highest grit surfaces be? Oh, and if such a thing already exists, please tell me where so I can buy it...
10-14-2010, 01:53 AM
simpleman

Do you really need a pasted strop for travel? I have 2 razors that I shave with. Neither have had any work other than a regular strop and I been using them for a couple months with out issue. Dont get me wrong but it seems like over kill. I would hate to see you spend alot of time making something you may not need or use.
10-14-2010, 02:50 AM
thehekler

I can see the logic if your going to use it for storage it might as well be 4 sided since its going to need to be that large to hold anything. If your planing to fit a few razors in there plus a brush its going to need to be fairly large and you might as well use all four sides. Even if you have one side fabric and another leather for basic stropping that still leaves you two for pasting which even if you do not use while travelling those two can still be used at home. Detachable handle sounds like a good idea but might be somewhat difficult im not a woodworker but I would want mine to be perfectable stiff and a detachable handle seems like it might have some wiggle to it. Let us know what you come up with and how it works out.
10-14-2010, 05:58 AM
Muscles

Quote:

Originally Posted by simpleman

Do you really need a pasted strop for travel? I have 2 razors that I shave with. Neither have had any work other than a regular strop and I been using them for a couple months with out issue. Dont get me wrong but it seems like over kill. I would hate to see you spend alot of time making something you may not need or use.

Do I need a pasted strop, probably not but having one can't hurt, right? Recently while travelling, I have taken two razors with me for a weeks travel just in case something should happen to one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thehekler

I can see the logic if your going to use it for storage it might as well be 4 sided since its going to need to be that large to hold anything. If your planing to fit a few razors in there plus a brush its going to need to be fairly large and you might as well use all four sides. Even if you have one side fabric and another leather for basic stropping that still leaves you two for pasting which even if you do not use while travelling those two can still be used at home. Detachable handle sounds like a good idea but might be somewhat difficult im not a woodworker but I would want mine to be perfectable stiff and a detachable handle seems like it might have some wiggle to it. Let us know what you come up with and how it works out.

I'm glad you can see my logic. It will be used for storage so it will already have four sides. For me, I could probably make do with just leather but for my mate, being away for up to 8 weeks with just one razor is a daunting idea so we thought "lets make a 4 sided travel strop" and here we are.

EDIT: The "this'd be cool" factor is diminishing fast. I might just invest in a magnetic modular strop for my travel needs. I will pack my straights in a hard case and will keep an eye out something nice to pack a brush in for travel.

Will let you all know if my mate does end up constructing something (he is awesome on the tools), but I might also try to convince him to buy some of my "excess" razors so he too could make do with paddle of sorts.

With honing there is an obvious progression. Can anyone see a need for a strop progression during long term travel, to alleviate the need to travel with a hone/stone? Perhaps the whole idea is overkill but I'd like to give it a shot anyway.