Printable View
Was just looking at an old barber’s catalog online (very old) and their preferred method for breaking in a new strop included soaking the strop in urine for a few days (didn't say whose urine) and finally rubbing it with lead just before the first use, I'm assuming because we can all do with a little more lead in our blood stream. Gads, I’m starting to question what may have been done to the old strops I‘m using! If anyone wants to try out this method, let me know how it turns out. ;)
I skip the strop and just pee on my face while eating old paint chips.
Well, at least they stayed with #1 instead of going on to #2.
LOL, great :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by SixNipples
The urine probably has to come from the same girls that roll the tobacco leaves on their thighs to make the best cigars.Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeBass
Urine has some bleaching properties and I know tanners used to use urine during the tanning process, but I can't see a reason for using it after the fact.
We have some nice Barber's manuals in the reference files that don't call for any piss.
I was told that cow brains were used at one time to break in leather as well.
Leather processing and getting a strop ready for use are a bit different...
Now if you go Shoot a Deer, Elk or Moose, and decide to make a strop out of part of the hide then the "Stale Urine and Brain" processing might be something to look into.. :)
I have plenty of one of the required items.
The lead part makes sense. It was probably the best material that would have been readily available at the time for burnishing the surface of the leather. It would be easier to polish lead than just about any material and it would still be firm enough to compress the surface leather.
I wonder if the urine might make the leather softer or somehow more receptive to that manner of tooling than just water alone?
Here's a link. He's discussing his ideas on breaking in strops on page twenty...and relating his thoughts on running your tongue over your hones on page sixteen.
Essay on barbers' razors, razor hones, razor strops and razor honing ..
That's a pretty interesting book, thanks for sharing.
Hmm... I was wrong.
Glen's not kidding here. One of my books is about tanning - using groud up or pureed brain. I asked a friend from TX how he tanned. 'We just put the hide in a bucket and peed on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
The book came w/ a tiny sample of deerskin - like soft, new chamois.
I've got plenty of both... Pee and Lead, that is. Now the brains part is questionable.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFDavis11
After reading this , I'm glad I never bought any vintage strops . I wonder when they stopped using urine .
That's right - urine was/is used, and an old backwoods saying is that any critter has enough brains to tan its hide. Brain tanning makes a nice soft leather.Quote:
Originally Posted by gssixgun
Regards,
Neil
Lead was used a lot - I have a recipe for it and whiting from the 1800s somewhere, and a lead bar was standard issue with army razors once. If they couldn't get a lead bar, a pewter bar was used - but this was the old type of pewter that contained lead, the new stuff does not. There must be something about the lead that helps - a sort of lubricant, maybe?Quote:
Originally Posted by HNSB
Regards,
Neil
Urine was traditionally used in the preliminary stages of tanning to remove the hair from the skin. It was also used to freshen (!?) and soften leather, but it had to be kept for some time before use, until fermenting, by which time it had copious amounts of ammonia in it. The leather that Napoleon LeBlanc probably had in mind was the old, traditional russian tannned leather. It was really stiff, and had to be broken in and softened before use. Modern rusian-tanned leather is not the same stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeBass
Regards,
Neil
The Romans use human urine to bleach their togas white. Over the years it's been a great cure all for all sorts of things: athletics foot cure in ww1 and other wars; and even now by some farm workers for cuts doing field work. Piss and vinegar were the cures of the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by jdto
I understand the use of cow brains as in a lot of applications a fluid from that area was used in the tanning process, however the use of urine is a new one to me. Gotta love the old days; they utilized what they had to make things work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Theseus
Tea leaves can be used in place of urine. It is the tannic acid that one is after. There are many different ways, but the base chemicals I teractions are what one is after. Urine was one of the first methods I learned for tanning.