Thread: Draw::: more or less?

It is a lot like the color of your slabs.

It has no discernible impact on the edge, and it is all about your preference.

I change my stropping routine a lot. For the last couple weeks I've used English Bridle on 1/4 hollows because it has more draw and have used my Tony Miller Steerhide for full hollows because it has a lot less draw. I read somewhere that some people like to do that. Does it make a difference? I don't know Sometimes I like to start on English Bridle and finish on Steerhide. Does it make a difference? BTW I think the Tony Miller Steerhide has a very light draw but that's just my opinion.

Most of the strop market is cowhides. If someone makes a horse strop, they'll tell you it's horse. Consider everything else to be cowhide of some type.

Personally, less draw for me. I don't need the razor spine creating a bunch of drag on a strop, especially on razors that don't have straight tangs, etc (like the dovo bismarck).

We should probably be having more conversations about linens on here than strops, though, as they are likely to have a greater effect on the keenness and maintenance of an edge.

My thinking is that stropping is an area where we've not recovered knowledge that was more widely know amongst cutlers of the last century. That makes me less confident in making any strong assertions about technique, materials, etc. When I started, I had trouble w/ latigo and other high-draw leathers - for the same reasons Jimmy describes. It felt 'grabby', and could overwhelm my light grip on the shank. In the case of the small shanks, this meant it could grab the spine, flip the blade over and drive the edge into the leather. I got proficient at destroying strops. I tried two different kinds of horse-hide. One was a velvet, swede-like surface finish, the other just raw, tanned belly hide. Both were smooth in the draw. The plain, raw finish had virtually no draw at all. I liked them both. My edges got better.
More recently, I've used latigo again, with its heavy draw. Sometimes I have to be very careful about it being 'grabby'. But again, the edges improved further. Being able to keep the stroke light on a heavy-draw leather that can get grabby seems to help the edge. Sometimes I'll then go to a lighter draw strop, but often just the latigo.
Does the material matter? Or is it more how one is able to use it? I don't know.

I was hoping we'd hear from Afdavis here. He's gone down the rabbit hole more than most that I read. I tend to listen to his thoughts on the topic carefully.

Here is an old thread started by AFD a few years back. Some interesting links and some interesting posts. I do think the linen is important. Oddly enough that seems to have been a topic of debate since people have been writing barber manuals.

I didn't appreciate a linen at first because of the pile of hones I have, like the rest of us. But for a simplified regimen where someone may not want to:
1) use powders and pastes
2) pay for a super fine stone

Then I think if those two conditions are there, a good linen really steps up a mediocre stone (like an average coticule) and really makes it easier to keep the same razor going for a long time without coming back to the stone. It also makes it less crticial for the leather on the strop to be anything other than very smooth.

That's just my opinion.

I was in a cycle where I was super fanatical about horse butt in its state from 1 month of use to about 6 months after that. Through that period, it sort of does the double role of a linen and a strop, but it eventually gets glass smooth. Adding a linen to the regimen makes it so that once it settles into glass smooth, there's no reason for it to try to do the job of both.

Aside from a good stone, everything else in razor sharpening and maintaining seems to be a moving target. A strop starts as something, it breaks into being something else, and eventually it becomes a third thing.

I would characterize the draw on the TM premium as light. It is an outstanding strop. Draw is a matter of personal preference and has no effect on the edge, assuming proper stropping technique.