Thread: upgrade..or keep it?

I currently have a 3" SRD Red Latigo Linen/Leather combo strop..nothing wrong with it..but I have 3 razors.. 6/8 custom GD hollow ground..7/8 Near Wedge...6/8 full wedge...will a lighter draw strop compared to my heavier draw strop any better/easier?..I always use the "weight" of the blade..edges are fine..no issues

I vote keep it and just add to your collection. I have 4 strops in my rotation and they all get used at some point.

Another vote to keep it, even if you wind up not using it often. Accidents happen

All strops do the same as long as they are quality strops. The differences are just how they look and feel as you use them. I'd keep it.

I think you should buy about ten more, and then buy a razor for each one, and then a full honing progression for each of those as well. After that, start considering upgrades.

Seriously though, you've already got one of the ones everybody recommends. I don't think there's much to "upgrade" to. Do what makes you happy. It's your hobby. I've had a few strops, I finally got a new one, and retired the antique ones. I only use the one, and won't have use for another for as long as this one will last. Just me.

Naturally, the answer is to keep it and anyother strop you may ever acquire. I have never sold a strop, hone or razor.
When you take your semi-annual inventory once a year, it's always a pleasure to sit and look at all your stuff. Everybody needs stuff, just ask George Carlin.

I had an Heirloom Horsehide Strop that was too smooth on the surface so I sanded it down to a smooth suede feel and the draw is just what I was looking for. With a little practice and some good advice along the way, you can customize the feel of many different strops. Especially if you have many different strops!!!! Keep collecting.....

JERRY
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I am a big fan of minimalist thinking but inthis endeavor… it’s to the point that if I don’t call it a hobby, there’s just nojustifying it!! : )

But! Were I not at the point I am at – and say I had an eye to perusing a “minimalist”approach, it would be easy to justify a second strop in terms of redundancy. Things happen.

When you buy your third and fourth – that’swhen you’ll need to explore the word hobby as so many of us have had to do herelol.

For a nice easy draw I'd recommend the SRD premium 1. It happens to have a perfect draw for my preference. Keep the latigo. You may find that one razor likes the heavier draw better than the lighter draw.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

For a nice easy draw I'd recommend the SRD premium 1. It happens to have a perfect draw for my preference. Keep the latigo. You may find that one razor likes the heavier draw better than the lighter draw.

I really like my SRD #1!! I do have a vintage leather strop and it has a very, very heavy draw. With that said, I do use the vintage from time to time. Besides, the draw the thickness of the vintage strop is amazing! It’s over twice as thick as any of my other five strops!!

I may be wrong, but I believe that the difference is that back in the day, they didn’t split the hide as they do know! I believe that the hair side is what is used to make leather and the inner part is now used to make collagen casing for sausages.

Here’s a quote from Wikipedia:
Artificial casings
Artificial casings are made of collagen, cellulose, or even plastic and may not be edible. Artificial casings from animal collagen can be edible, depending on the origin of the raw material.
Collagen
Collagen casings are mainly produced from the collagen in beef or pig hides, and the bones and tendons. It can also be derived from poultry and fish. They have been made for more than 50 years and their share of the market has been increasing. Usually the cost to produce sausages in collagen is significantly lower than making sausages in gut because of higher production speeds and lower labor requirements.
The collagen for artificial casings is processed extensively and, as a raw material, it is similar to bread dough prior to final production. It is then extruded through a die to the desired diameter, dried and shirred into short sticks up to 41 cm long that contain as much as 50m of casing. In a newer process, a form of dough is coextruded with the meat blend, and a coating is formed by treating the outside with a calcium solution to set the coating.
The latest generation of collagen casings are usually more tender than natural casings but do not exhibit the “snap” or “bite” of natural casing sausages. The biggest volume of collagen casings are edible, but a special form of thicker collagen casings is used for salamis and large caliber sausages where the casing is usually peeled off the sausage by the consumer. Collagen casings are permeable to smoke and moisture, are less expensive to use, give better weight and size control, and are easier to run when compared to natural casings.

hahah just keep it... it'll just hang with the new strops until you need it anyway, right? Not in anyone's way, really...