Thread: Fabric Strop

I've been shaving with a Straight Razor for about 6 months and I am really enjoying it (I'm definitely still a beginner). I have a SRD strop and love it because you can change the leathers or fabrics instead of buying a new strop. I started out with the 3" Black Latigo and the 3" Webbed Fabric and liked it but I nicked up the latigo real bad while learning how to strop. Lynn recommended the English Bridle leather as a replacement and I really like the draw on this. My question is I don't feel a difference whether I use the Webbed Fabric or not. So has anyone used two different leathers to strop instead of a fabric? Like using the Bridle in conjunction with the Roo or Buffalo or even the Latigo? Or do the other fabrics that are available with the SRD strop work better than the webbed fabric (SRD premium or Hard Pressed Wool Felt)? I have a paddle strop also and use the diamond spray on the felt and that works well but not for daily use. I guess I don't know what the fabric is supposed to do. I know you are supposed to do it first before the leather and that they are also used for pastes and sprays but for daily use what do they do?

The theory is [suposedly] that using the felt realigns theblade in preparation for the final "smoothing" across the leather. Personally, I usualy do abt. [I don't count anymore] 20 or so laps on the felt. Then I routinely do 50 laps on the leather [exactly 50...for no other reason than I'm a creature of habit]. And actually, I've recently refined my method (for the umpteenth time) and I think I've finally able to fine tune the experience. I start on the coticule. Heavy slurry to light. Then I do several strokes on a leather backed strop with chrox paste. then I do about 3 or 4 passes on a felt block with .25 diamond for the final. Then it's to the felt...and finish on the leather. Also, I absolutely DO NOT touch up between shaves on the either of the pastes. I wait until the razor tells me it needs a little freshening up. And then I'm equally as careful - - I do 3 passes on the chrox and 3 on the diamond, and no more! Diamond - an excellent sharpener - is also quite adept at dulling blades very rapidly if overused.

Look at your blade’s bevel at magnification, best at 60 -100, the day after you shave and before you strop. You will see microscopic bits of skin, blood, hair, soap, minerals in your water and rust.

I’ve read that, realigning the edge thing and believe what Linen does is clean the bevel before you imbed all that gunk into your leather strop. It probably does polish the edge somewhat… but mostly cleans the bevel.

Try the SRD Herringbone for a general cleaning strop, they are also inexpensive. The Poly strop make a great pasted strop, try some Chrome Oxide it will polish a bevel quickly, better than leather and Chrome Oxide.

Clean the razor well prior to moving to leather or you will make your leather into a pasted strop.

The other benefit of a Nylon/ Poly strop is as a training strop, they are almost impossible to cut – even blade forward stropping. Once you have acquired the muscle memory of stropping move to your expensive leather, you will be glad you did.

The problem is probably not in the leather, it is your stropping ability. Honing and Stropping is all about pressure and it the most difficult thing to teach someone because it is about the feel. Your stropping will improve with practice. I recommend using the Poly strop and practice slow perfect full blade contact strokes, slow flip and back.

Once you acquire better stropping skill then try other leathers. Until then you’ll just be slicing up strops. You can get a good edge on a nylon poly strop and you can paste the other side.

This is one of those facets of using a straight razor that depends upon the person, but to me the fabric strop is a sharpening device. I don't use stones any finer than a hard Arkansas. If need be I initially sharpen on a stone, then hone on the canvas and polish on the leather. Then for the next year or two (or more) just use the canvas and leather. I mostly just use one particular razor.

I never thought about it until recently and was told that it warms the blade in preparation for the leather?

Originally Posted by cflaageriv

Diamond - an excellent sharpener - is also quite adept at dulling blades very rapidly if overused.

How would... I don't get this.

And one other thing I've noticed is that ALL razors are different and seem to "hone up" differently probably depending (I'm guessing) on the hardness of the steel... among other factors. So, it goes without saying that what you need to do is just to pay attention while honing and [fine] sharpening just to make sure you aren't over honing the particular razor.

All I can offer is: I went from a small leather strop (poor man's) to a Red Imp strop with canvas and leather and all my blades are noticeably sharper.

Originally Posted by earcutter

How would... I don't get this.

When you are using paste you are sharpening the blade in a manner similar to a hone. So as with a hone one miss stroke could ruin an edge and over use could cause burr to form. This is much rarer with pasted strops but can happen. Though I would say you would have to do much more then 3 laps to run into this problem.

Well said Euclid! I totally agree that the fabric is for CLEANING! I have a Veho microscope and what you say about all the gunk left on the blade is 100% correct. I, personally never cared for the linen or any of the fabrics and recently got a BEAUTIFUL strop from The Imperial Shave Shaving Razor Quality with suede instead. Love it!

Originally Posted by Castel33

When you are using paste you are sharpening the blade in a manner similar to a hone. So as with a hone one miss stroke could ruin an edge and over use could cause burr to form. This is much rarer with pasted strops but can happen. Though I would say you would have to do much more then 3 laps to run into this problem.

I couldn't agree more. I've learned the hard way that over-sharpening is very easy to do if one isn't careful. In fact, I find that when using the .25 micron spray that any more than two passes will make the blade go from an amazingly sharp blade and take it the other direction with each pass.