Thread: Strop conditioners

What kind of draw does wet concrete have?

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

What kind of draw does wet concrete have?

Wet concrete has minimal draw, but it is more abrasive than CrOx.

Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

Do they place buckets near fire hydrants down there?

What fire hydrants ?

Originally Posted by onimaru55

What fire hydrants ?

..........

Less is more when it comes to conditioning your strop. I have used all the usual culprits and they almost always put too much moisture in the leather causing much drag and less sharpening effect. You actually want a relatively dry but smooth surface for optimal stropping.

Daily rubbing with the palm and ball of the thumb will provide all the natural conditioning a new strop should ever need.

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

What kind of draw does wet concrete have?

I use those colored crayon Chalks on the wet concrete. Really works well for me..........

Yo

I have a bottle of FROMM #364 strop dressing that I ordered online somewhere a long time ago. It's the only thing I've ever used so I can't compare it to anything, but after I use it, my strops are supple & no longer dry. (It resembles lotion, except it has a bad scent to it). As previously posted here, between applications of the dressing I rub the strop with the palm of my hand before I use it.

This is a very timely thread for me as I just optained a mostly new Illinois #106 Str8 razor strop and it is very very stiff, I mean it resembles thick cardboard more than leather!
I will try the From Dressing as I have NO idea were to get a hold of 'Dubins''

Good shaving Chaps

Originally Posted by AFDavis11

What kind of draw does wet concrete have?

Something like molasses in the winter time.

I'm just starting out. The leather on my new paddle strop felt like it might as well have been Formica. Hard and super-slick. Stropping felt a waste of time on this side (the other side is a sort of suede and did give some feedback). Didn't seem to me like this hard side had any chance of doing anything to the edge.

As far as hand-rubbing, my hands tend to be fairly dry so I don't know how many years it might take to incorporate a useful amount of skin oils.

So I decided on a light application of Lexol. It soaked in immediately. After a few minutes rest and some buffing, I did start to feel what I imagine you all mean by "draw" -- a slight bit of resistance that increases when the edge makes contact across the strop; like the leather is licking the blade as it passes over. It's not a huge amount, but it feels more "right" now than the seemingly pointless sliding it was doing before when the leather was so hard it seemed like it was only touching the edge at one or two spots instead of uniformly. I felt like I was constantly tempted to press too hard with the blade to overcome this lack of contact.

So I hope I didn't mess it up. Doesn't feel that way. Maybe now that there's some conditioner in the leather, the hand-rubbing will have something to work with?