Thread: Mastro Livi loom Strop

Obie loves his, and as he is much wiser than I am, I went with his recommendations and ordered one a few months ago. Since receiving it, my other wonderful strops have seen no use and are just hanging there. The soft leather side polishes the edge like no tomorrow, and I also have been enjoying the Chromium Oxide side.

Anyone here prefer the Livi loom strop to Kanayama strops? Since both are expensive, I will eventually have to choose between the two offerings, but as of now I'm leaning toward the Livi based on those here who have offered their opinions.

Originally Posted by evnpar

Obie loves his, and as he is much wiser than I am, I went with his recommendations and ordered one a few months ago. Since receiving it, my other wonderful strops have seen no use and are just hanging there. The soft leather side polishes the edge like no tomorrow, and I also have been enjoying the Chromium Oxide side.

Which size did you get Richard?

Originally Posted by Speedster

Anyone here prefer the Livi loom strop to Kanayama strops? Since both are expensive, I will eventually have to choose between the two offerings, but as of now I'm leaning toward the Livi based on those here who have offered their opinions.

Yes, I have both - the smaller Livi and 70000 Kanayama, as well as a couple of other good quality horse strops from Neil Millar and Scrupleworks. In comparing all of them I can only say that all work exceedingly well but I noticed a slight difference with the Kanayama that I didn't with the Livi, both of which were bought after the first two.

Originally Posted by Thug

Which size did you get Richard?

I bought the medium sized strop, which is very large. I think the large size would be too wieldy.

Originally Posted by Speedster

Anyone here prefer the Livi loom strop to Kanayama strops? Since both are expensive, I will eventually have to choose between the two offerings, but as of now I'm leaning toward the Livi based on those here who have offered their opinions.

I have both strops, as well as a Neil Miller shell, a Scrupleworks, and a Tony Miller. I'm not sure you can compare the Livi Loom Strop with the Kanayama. Both are excellent strops but are also very different. You can't go wrong with either one. The Kanayama has a buttery feel to it, unlike any other strop that I've tried. The leather on the Livi is incredibly soft. I used to do 30 laps on linen, then 60 on leather with my other strops, but with the Livi I only need to do about 20 laps on leather to polish the edge. I'm very impressed with the Livi, but I wouldn't necessarily say one is better than the other, it has more to do with an individual's preference.

I have a large one and the leather is the most buttery smooth leather I have ever seen. It's so soft it puts the kanayama to shame. Using it is an experience and the CrO side is really loaded with the stuff so it does a fast job of touching up your razor.

It's really one of those luxury items if you can afford you will enjoy using immensely.

Looking at the sizes available, I think that something in-between the small and medium would be the ideal size.

I was impressed watching Mastro Livi's video where he takes a shave-ready razor, kills the edge on a glass, then gets it back to shave-ready with a relatively small number of passes on the pasted side and very few on the leather side as well.

I have his large loom strop and i love it. The leather side is the softest I've seen and is a treat to strop on. The crox side is extremely effective to freshen up an edge. Pricey? Yes, but i still like it.