Thread: What's your favorite strop material?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Neil, really glad Scott brought this up. I have a HandAmerican 'Old Dog Classic 905' that came with a little brochure. In it Keith says,"Your strop was hand made using full grain horse hide tanned in the Cordovan style by the Horween Co. of Chicago Illinois." So what is the difference between a piece of horse hide tanned with the 'cordovan process' and cordovan shell ? Is the one equal with the other ?

The main thing is that 'cordovan' is a method of tanning, and 'shell' is a specific cut of leather - from a horses rump in this case, so 'shell cordovan" is horse shell leather that has been tanned using the cordovan process. The horses hide is removed and a measurement of 18 inches forward from the root of the tail is made, and the leather cut down each flank and along the butt cheeks. The round cheek areas are separated from the rest (though both are tanned), and the butts are split to reveal a small oval muscular membrane called the shell.

Of course more than just the shells come from a horse! The bits that flank the shells are often referred to as 'north of cordovan' or just plain 'horse-hide' - a haflway house between shell and ordinary leather (the shell is mainly muscular tissue rather than skin/subcutaneous leather), very fine in texture, usually thicker than shell, much cheaper than the more expensive shell, and usually stiff as a board. Other cuts have more in common with the leathers we are accustomed to, being much thicker. The japanese and italian use a thick cut from near the shoulder and tan it as cordovan for instance, but technically it cannot be called 'shell' cordovan.

The cordovan process is named for Cordova, Spain where the process was invented a very, very long time ago. The original process used goatskin and alum - very different to today's process! In the middle ages people who used the leather were called 'cordwainers' and because so many of them made shoes it become a generic term for a shoemaker, up until comparatively recently. The process later included pig and sheepskin leather. Once it had changed to produce the shiny leather we recognise as cordovan, it spread to Germany where highly mirrored leather articles (spiegelware) were produced, then to Holland, then to America.

Today's process takes six months to complete. In the US, Horween import salted horsehides from France - they are unprocessed and heavily salted to preserve them - then tan them in a solution of resins, tree bark (some from the chestnut tree) in a deep pit. They remain there for 30 days, then have the surface layer removed to expose the membraneous shell, then go into another pit of tanning solution for a further 30 days. Other processes including a 'resting' phase take an additional 4 months.

Horween, incidentally, were primarily strop-makers:



but as the market disappeared they had to use the product for other things.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by fchan

How do you determine which razor needs which sort of strop? Do hollow grinds need less draw and a heavier wedge work better with more? I'm curious as to how these things affect the blade...

Thanks!

Hi fchan,
What I was referring to, for me, is mostly preference. I think you'll hear and read this a lot with straight shaving. Shaving, the razor on your face, Feel. Honing, blade on the stone, Feel. Stropping, blade on the linen or leather, but mostly leather, Feel. Sometimes feel is preference, how much draw one prefers, etc.. Honing, especially on Shaptons, you can feel a change in the stroke that tells you it's at or right at finished on that stone. That's not preference, but real feedback. Some can get that same feedback from their strops. Not so much for me.

What I was referring to was more utilitarian. I like to strop square/spike points on the Premium I strop because it's a thicker and sturdier (stiff) leather and I'm less likely to get the occasional scratch on it with the tip than on my shell cordovan which is a much thinner leather, and softer. I also like to hone blades with a bigger smile, like a Charlie Lewis razor, on the Premium I because it has less draw and I can more easily work the angle of the blade to get the whole edge evenly stropped. Hollow and extra hollow I like the cordovan. Like I said, some of it is feel, preference, and some of it is feel, feedback.

For lots of posts on sharpness due to draw, and draw in general, search (sharp draw) There are no end to ideas, opinions and theories on what and how a strop does what it does. Hope this helps.

Best Regards,
Howard

Howard, years ago, when I first cut into (no pun intended) the razor forums I read a thread on one of them where guys were talking about their favorite strop material. At that time they seemed to think that little or no draw equaled ineffectiveness. Latigo was the consensus at that time. I liked horse right from the git go. Anyway, it is interesting, looking at the poll results so far, that cordovan/horse is leading the pack.

Yeah, I went back and read a lot of the old posts and draw was magical. I still prefer a light draw, I think it's easier to use, easier to learn on, and I can't tell any discernible difference in the results from my Premium I with light draw and my Buffalo with lots of draw.

I got a SRD Premium IV English Bridle a couple weeks ago and I'm still breaking it in but I really like it. The draw is getting better and better but it's showing signs of wear already. I think it's from my smiling razors which all have barber notches. I like to use a regular stroke and a x stroke to make sure I get the whole edge. The x stroke might be doing it. So I use my SRD Premium I for my smiling razors cause it's softer, less draw and hasn't shown any sign of wear. I use the English Bridle on only my "straight" straight razors now but it's my favorite, for now.