Thread: Mastro Livi loom Strop

I have all three sizes travel,small,medium. There all lovely strops, if I had the choice I,d say the small is ideal.

Ive had mine for a few days now. Very happy with it, the draw is unlike anything else Ive used, like stropping on silk. The CrOx is heavily applied but I rubbed it with a clean cloth to get some of it off.
Construction wise its basic but aren't all strops, attention to detail is not quite there but it does the intended job exceptionally well.
Like Dave said does it perform better than other high end strops. Probably not but its nice to have something different than my usual hanging ones.

Im glad I got the small. Shown with a 5/8 Globusmen.

Now that I've had my small Livi loom strop for a month or so, I am kind of wishing I had gotten the medium. Here's why.

Despite thinking I was exercising great care, and using Mastro Livi's unique stropping method, I have managed to get 3 or 4 superficial cuts on the far end of the strop. Mastro Livi on his video say not to worry, as you can just avoid putting your razor on that part of the strop. Of course, you have then lost some real estate for stropping.

On the small strop, the surface area is already small. If I follow his advice, I've eliminated a good inch or more of the end of the strop forever.

So, a medium or larger strop would give you much more linear surface so that if you nick up the end (especially when the strop is new), you have a proportionately larger remainder to use.

I have both. The medium is the every day and the small for travel. The medium for me is the perfect size.

Yeah, I got to see a small Livi strop of Obie's at Rolodave's wonderful meet up earlier this year and it convinced me that the medium is the size that I would prefer. I've also seen a large at Lynn's place and that one seems to be a bit longer than I would consider to be necessary.

Originally Posted by 400E

Despite thinking I was exercising great care, and using Mastro Livi's unique stropping method, I have managed to get 3 or 4 superficial cuts on the far end of the strop

Watching Mastros Livis stropping video I can understand how easy it would be to cut your strop. Stropping so the toe of the razor goes right to edge of the strop to me would be a sure fire way to cut it.

Originally Posted by markbignosekelly

Watching Mastros Livis stropping video I can understand how easy it would be to cut your strop. Stropping so the toe of the razor goes right to edge of the strop to me would be a sure fire way to cut it.

Now that you say that, I think that is exactly what happened. I had not put 2 and 2 together until reading your reply. I think I probably must have lifted and tilted the razor at the end of the "away" stroke and thus cut the far end of the strop by the toe of the razor. The cuts are on the right half of the far end of the strop.

Maybe I will try to use a more conventional stropping motion -- a simple x-stroke but not try to get the razor completely off the edge of the strop.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 400E

Now that you say that, I think that is exactly what happened. I had not put 2 and 2 together until reading your reply. I think I probably must have lifted and tilted the razor at the end of the "away" stroke and thus cut the far end of the strop by the toe of the razor. The cuts are on the right half of the far end of the strop.

Maybe I will try to use a more conventional stropping motion -- a simple x-stroke but not try to get the razor completely off the edge of the strop.

Thanks!

I actually strop on the Livi exactly the way he shows - going very slowly and right to the point of the razor, ensuring the heel is also hitting the strop on alternate strokes - I think the key to Livi's stropping method is the age old truth regarding stropping - speed kills.

I go very slowly on the Livi and make sure the loom has the proper tension....

Also a good point -- I am sure that I probably have increased the speed a bit as I got (over)confident in using the strop. I recall how nervous I initially was about cutting up my nice new strop so went almost comically slow, and no cuts to show for it.

Originally Posted by Phrank

I actually strop on the Livi exactly the way he shows - going very slowly and right to the point of the razor, ensuring the heel is also hitting the strop on alternate strokes - I think the key to Livi's stropping method is the age old truth regarding stropping - speed kills.

I go very slowly on the Livi and make sure the loom has the proper tension....

That's exactly what I've also been doing. It would be very easy to put a slice in this leather. It's probably all in my head, or in my technique, but I swear that I get a better polish to the edge than with my conventional strops.