Is there a place for felt strops?

R

Rhodies

Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
284
Used to be into Straight Razor Shaving, but turned out to be short-lived. I had acquired a Felt Strop along the way and was wondering if there would be any realized benefits used with folders?
 
If you are looking for a very polished edge then they would certainly work. For more modern steels you'll likely need diamond compounds over CrOx, but if you have it are no longer going to use it for straights, should do just fine. I can't see why it would be different than a leather paddle strop, but maybe someone else knows why its a bad idea?
 
I think it depends on what you cut and what kind of edge shape you want.
Meaning many people here love convexed edges and your strop would tend toward creating that kind of edge.
Is the felt on a hard backing such as a board or is it on a belt ?
How dense (hard) is the felt ?
The harder the better.
Personally I want the profile down at the edge to be specific known angles and want the bevel just behind the edge to be pretty flat (not rounded). This just works better for me on the things I cut the most. For those reasons I even strop on a stone, water stone or ceramic or extreamly fine diamond plate and would have zero use for any softer strop.
Scraping / cutting hair off a soft pliable surface . . . well that's all different then I'd be a stroppin' fool.
 
Good question. I can't tell you the last time I heard of a felt strop. I just use and hear about leather ones, even when I was on the wet shaving forums.
 
You can use anything as a strop. Tho some materials are better than others. I've never tried a felt strop.
 
Wowbagger said:
I think it depends on what you cut and what kind of edge shape you want.
Meaning many people here love convexed edges and your strop would tend toward creating that kind of edge.
Is the felt on a hard backing such as a board or is it on a belt ?
How dense (hard) is the felt ?
The harder the better.
Personally I want the profile down at the edge to be specific known angles and want the bevel just behind the edge to be pretty flat (not rounded). This just works better for me on the things I cut the most. For those reasons I even strop on a stone, water stone or ceramic or extreamly fine diamond plate and would have zero use for any softer strop.
Scraping / cutting hair off a soft pliable surface . . . well that's all different then I'd be a stroppin' fool.
Click to expand...

The felt I feel is dense and it is mounted on a wooden stroping paddle. I am currently using a green honing compound with chromium and aluminum oxide on the felt.
 
Rhodies said:
The felt I feel is dense and it is mounted on a wooden stroping paddle. I am currently using a green honing compound with chromium and aluminum oxide on the felt.
Click to expand...
Excellent. I would say as long as you have a well formed apex ( as oposed to a dull or blunt edge) then that hard felt should get you a really sharp edge and as long as the edge after some use doesn't get too many dings or rolled spots then the strop would help you touch up that edge and bring it back to really sharp.
Obviously you need to be careful to keep the angle as shallow as possible so the edge geometry is maintained.

If after a bunch of use you find that even though the edge is very sharo that it doesn't cut controllably things that you cut often then it might be time to go to a harder strop.

Only you can decided if the edge you are getting off the felt is for you.
 
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