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.