Thread: cordovan shell strops

I ended up with two Tony Miller 2 1/2" horsehide strops. I used one daily for quite awhile and then, just for the heck of it, took a very light application of neatsfoot and applied it to that strop. I let it set for a couple of days and went to my other go to strop, an SRD premium 1. The premium 1 has a very light draw but it has some and is about just right for me. The light application of the neatsfoot gave a noticeable increase to the draw on the TM horsehide.

Noticeable but not so much that it suddenly became like a latigo. OTOH I was glad I had the other TM horse because I liked the original draw better than the increase on the other one. So IME the neats foot will definitely give a bit more draw. It will also darken the leather slightly so if you have a blond TM horse it will be as if it were in the 'tanning booth' for a couple of hours. I also applied neatsfoot to a strop I made. A HandAmerican piece of horse butt being the source of the material. Very slick with no draw at all until the neatsfoot application. Even with the neatsfoot it is still a bit slick so I have to get around to doing another round of it.

Finally, I used to do 50 and 50 linen and leather religiously. Of late I've been experimenting with less being adequate. I've found that, for me, 30 to 40 on each surface seems to bring the same results as the 50/50. Some years ago thebigspendur did a couple of threads on stropping. IIRC these threads are titled "the great experiment." TBS knows his strops and he found that going past 60 round trips seemed to be redundant. Anyway, to each his own. We can all do our own 'great experiment' if we are that serious about it.

AF Davis, another fellow who knows his strops, has said that stropping is one of the most important pieces of the straight razor puzzle ....(I'm paraphrasing) and I used to think that was an exageration. Of late I've been working harder on my stropping and I have found that AF is spot on.. Stropping really is as important as honing in the end result. Maybe even more so. IMHO.