Thread: Beau Brummel "Scotch" Silk Finish- What is it?

I went out of character and ordered a store-bought strop a couple of months ago, an unused illinois #226 - looks like horse butt (says genuine horsehide on it). Someone on ebay was selling a couple of them for fair coin with a razor hone (which I didn't need at all).

The linen side of it has a crispy white coarse strap that says "beau brummel scotch silk finish". It's really abrasive, sort of has a sticky coated feel, and I have no idea if it came with the strop or if the seller switched it out.

It's stiff right now, what is it? Is it linen coated with something? Of all of the strops I have, they only have canvas, felt and nylon backs (I don't really like any of those a whole lot).

So what is it and what do I do with it? Flex it and rub it with a glass bottle? It definitely marks up the bevel of a razor in its fresh-new state right now, but to find out how much it dulls a razor, I ran a freshly honed razor over it and then back over a broken horse butt strop I already have, and the edge was still good, despite the fact that the hard linen side completely dulled the bevel on the razor, and the feel itself was pretty harsh.

Most of your old linen strops came with a stiff finish. I don't know what they used but I've heard it was chalk. I know if you wash it you will see all this white stuff coming out of it and then after cleaning it's soft.

You might consider those old farts actually knew a thing or two about razors and use it as is, most of the "Old" linen breaks in rather well after about 100 razors...

It is so crispy and new, and I know that the person who sold me the strop as NOS had a bunch of true NOS stuff because it came in a wrapper that was absolutely falling apart (if you've ever ordered steel and a supply house pulls a piece out that's 50 years old, you know what I mean, you find steel in it that has a superb ground surface but the wrapper has totally lost its structure over the years).

Anyway, I'd have to figure that as clean as the linen is and nicely made as it is, that I want to find out how it works. It is alarmingly rough feeling on the razor as you use it, but things can be deceiving.

So here is what my plan has been so far. I have the strop hanging next to my favorite untreated (but broken in and shiny) horse butt. So every day I strop my regular razor on the horse butt. Then I got to this "new" (1940s unused) illinois 226, I pull out a fat japanese frameback and I do 50 laps on the linen and then 50 on the strop. A couple of months of that will tell me if the thing changes, and it gives me a chance to see what happens to the edge on the frameback over time.

Despite the rough feeling, the linen has not hurt the edge, it has only clouded the bevel a little but that could be the sticky binder in the linen more than the finish. It still shaves armhair well despite brisk stropping on the linen with extra pressure (i.e., moderate pressure so that the thing actually gets broken in a little).

So I will do that for a month or two and see what happens with it. I only have felt, no linen, so this one is my only linen. I couldn't bear to wash it out, it's dandy and the markings/ephemera on it are too interesting.

Kanayama coming next month, as well as some shell from horween, it could be short lived, but I am always interested in the original goods that came from a time when there was an abundance of different suppliers and no compromises like there are today (e.g., you get shell from horween in the US or you don't get shell, and because of the price most people instead just don't get shell and a lot of the strops don't have linen anything like this has on it).

Glen, as you say, and as I've learned from things made back when there were trades (and by talking to the very few true tradesmen left who work metal and wood. I don't know any barbers as particular, i'm sure there are some, just none that I've met) A lot of things are like they are on purpose, and at least at the time, quite often as the result of incremental improvements over a VERY long period of time. That makes me anal retentive about venturing off and changing things.

One side comment, the strop itself was unused, it is incredibly good quality for what is probably just treated horsebutt and by the hardware on it, I'm assuming it was marketed toward home use (no mention of barber anything on it, and maybe they'd have used shell or leather with russian treatment in the 1940s instead of what is probably similar to treated horse butt strip).

That is the way all of the old linens were back in the day and that is the way the Kanayama linens that I have had are ..... without the white stuff .... but very stiff and feel rough. It will break in over time. Just use it and don't try and 'improve' it. They didn't make it that way by mistake.

The plan your proposing/following...I like it.

FWIW, my guess is that the crispness your feeling on the linen may be in part due to oxidation which should break down with continued use. The "dulling" of the bevel may be caused by the coating on the linen that is holding the "chalk/talc" in place. I would suspect it is soap or wax type of substance.

I also have a NOS "Beau Brummel" linen strop with the "sticky" surface, that I purchased on ebay a few years ago. Probably a different vendor. I have never used the strop, but I have used other vintage linen strops. I too have wondered what was used to treat these strops.

I have a Dubbl Duck strop (same manufacturer as "Beau Brummel") that has a linen with a clear, waxy surface, and came down from my late grandfather. I have no idea if the linen started out sticky like the "Brummel" or if it always had a waxy feel.

The first razor strop I ever bought in the late 70's, early 80's, was an IRS strop, and the linen was coated with a greenish, sort of brittle "waxy" substance that would flake off if the strop was bent sharply. I have no idea what that coating was, and that strop is now gone, discarded years ago. I've never seen another IRS linen similar to that one since. IRS linens are completely different now, and most are familiar with them.

I also have a vintage "Imported Scotish Kitte Linen" strop that I paired with an IRS #361 leather strop. That linen is dry, but feels as though it may have been treated similar to the "Brummel" strop at one time, although it does have a somewhat waxy feel to it as well.

It sure would be nice to know exactly how and why these strops were made the way they were made. You'd think that somewhere, there would be stored the original manufacturers formulas for treating these linen strops. I've looked online, and there are a lot of processes described, but many, if not all, sound unlikely to have been widely used. More likely that when the manufacturers for these items went out of business, the documents describing the methods and materials used were destroyed, and the knowledge, which may have been the culmination of decades, maybe even centuries, based on trial and error, was lost. Maybe forever. Too bad for us.

Therefore, I recommend leaving your strop "as is" and enjoying a bit of old technology. Like Jimmy said, I doubt they were made that way by mistake.

Aside from feeling like it's ripping the edge off the razor when you use it due to its stiffness, it works pretty well. As it gets more pliable and it's easier to get coverage of the edge, I'd guess it'll work just as well. I have one of my razors on one of those binges where you see how long you can go without stropping, and I've not had proper linen during one of those binges before, so maybe I can get 200 or 300 shaves. I can easily get 60 out of straight horsebutt with no linen and still have a sharp comfortable edge. Maybe I won't have the patience to get further than that, though. But I'll try this linen if and when the razor loses its zip, and see if it revitalizes the edge a little. It doesn't do anything bad to an already sharp edge other than dull the finish on the bevel a little, but that may just outright be a little bit of sticky gick from the linen making it look dull.

Update with the linen. For a while, I stuck to carbon steel razors because nearly my entire group of razor stones is natural stones with soft abrasive in them.

This hard linen with some kind of waxy chalk in it definitely will keep up the carbon razors, a briskly refreshed edge on it feels very similar to a perfect freshly honed edge that's gone on an inferior cotton linen and horse leather, the edge is a weeper maker and by all tests feels super keen.

But for some reason, I had a fit of buying a couple of weeks ago and bought 4 friodur or friodur blank based razors. They obviously don't like the natural stones quite as much, but I've been shaving with them anyway, they get plenty sharp to shave, just not as easily up to the weeper level. The last two days, I gave the most boogery of the friodurs (not coincidentally, the one furthest from being straight) two brisk sessons on the beau brimmel without going back to a hone and the difference in the keeneness of the edge is outstanding, bordering on incredible.

I have seen the comment by iwasaki that he believes it is unfortunate that people are not using their linens to maintain their razors as much as they should, and despite my initial reservations (because this loaded linen is still hard, if I swung it at someone it would leave a mark), brisk use of this linen is helpful for carbon but super for stainless steels. Whatever is hanging onto their edge just seems to get ripped right off and smoothed over by it, leaving a very keen edge. Whoever developed this strop and gooped it up to significant stiffness knew exactly what they were doing, I'm just glad to have waded through and tried it with the briskness it needs to work (otherwise with its stiffness, you can't get a uniform contact along the edge in a stroke).

These are floating around here or there in NOS condition, supposedly from the 40s. Highly recommend digging one up if you find it fresh and new. Mine is on the back of a NOS illinois #226 horse butt strop that still had the wrapper on it.