Strop Cleaning

[stitchawl]

Mozarella is made from "buffel" milk ( dont know trnslation, too lazy to use google trnslate too ) so maybe we should order some leather strops made from those beasts

The word you're looking for is 'buffalo.' Mozzarella is made from both cow and buffalo milks. But considering that they are feed the same stuff, their silicate levels would be about the same. Both are fattened for market with grains, corn syrup, and other 'fattening foods' rather than just fed hay and grasses. It's the high level of silicates in the grasses that horses feed upon that is the primary reason for the high level of silicates found in horsehide.

I have some water buffalo leather that I picked up in Kuala Lumpur a couple of years ago, but its leather isn't particularly good for stropping. It doesn't give me the 'sticky' feel that horsehide does. You can feel horsehide grab at the blade. None of my cowhide strops (and I have some very high quality commercially made ones too,) have that same 'grab' to them. Although the leather is very, very dense, it's much more creamy feeling (I wish I had a better vocabulary to describe it,) as if one could actually mold it around an odd shaped surface just as if the leather were wet, but it's dry!
It's not at all soft... it's creamy.

Stitchawl

 

[cziv]

How does something with a smaller size grit than you've been using show up scratching the larger grit's finish? Natural silicates are much smaller than any other abrasive in our arsenal. In fact, the largest of the silicates is still just half the size of the finest DMT diamond spray.

I know that Keith somehow 'treats' his leather before selling it. I wonder if that has anything to do with it, though I doubt it. I've always been quite satisfied with his leathers. But my horsehide comes directly from Horween, shell cordovan, and I get no scratching at all, just a richer, deeper mirror finish. The leather has the creamy feeling of mozzarella cheese!

Stitchawl

This would require a softer touch then? The softer leathers as you mentioned in your other posts as creamy and forming to the edge could have the properties that would round an edge if not properly used? Yes/no?

 

[stitchawl]

This would require a softer touch then? The softer leathers as you mentioned in your other posts as creamy and forming to the edge could have the properties that would round an edge if not properly used? Yes/no?

No, not at all. The leather surface is as hard as any pressed cowhide you've seen, just as good quality tooling hide should be, but even more dense looking if you cut it and look at a cross section. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the surface is even harder than most cowhide I have. There is no worry about rolling an edge with it. It's not soft. But...

... the leather itself feels different. It's not the surface that feels this way. It's the whole leather. I can only describe it as 'creamy' and 'smooth.' I tell you what. I have some small scraps of the stuff left in my scrap bin. Nothing large enough even for a small bench strop, but big enough to rub a blade across. Maybe an inch or so wide and one or two inches long. Send me a snail mail address to my e-mail addy and I'll mail you a piece. If you run a folder blade over it you'll see what I mean.

Stitchawl

 

[cziv]

No, not at all. The leather surface is as hard as any pressed cowhide you've seen, just as good quality tooling hide should be, but even more dense looking if you cut it and look at a cross section. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the surface is even harder than most cowhide I have. There is no worry about rolling an edge with it. It's not soft. But...

... the leather itself feels different. It's not the surface that feels this way. It's the whole leather. I can only describe it as 'creamy' and 'smooth.' I tell you what. I have some small scraps of the stuff left in my scrap bin. Nothing large enough even for a small bench strop, but big enough to rub a blade across. Maybe an inch or so wide and one or two inches long. Send me a snail mail address to my e-mail addy and I'll mail you a piece. If you run a folder blade over it you'll see what I mean.

Stitchawl

Thanks for your kind offer but don't waste your time and money. I checked out Horween and their vendors. The price is crazy through the roof!! I'll be using my meager funds on more affordable stropping solutions.

Here's an interesting 2 page thread I read that includes Horween shell leather and strops and prices - straight razor boys!

http://www.straightrazorplace.com/forums/stropping/42218-cordovan-vs-shell-vs-horsehide.html

 

[stitchawl]

Thanks for your kind offer but don't waste your time and money. I checked out Horween and their vendors. The price is crazy through the roof!! I'll be using my meager funds on more affordable stropping solutions.

REALLY crazy! That's why you can't find high quality horsehide razor strops being offered by most strop companies. The prices are just not what people will spend any more. On the other hand, those who want the very best of the best will still buy it, like folks who will spend $400 for a pocket knife. However, you don't have to buy the entire hide to get a good strop. The HandAmerican horsehide strops are only $18, and are made from Horween's leather.

Here's an interesting 2 page thread I read that includes Horween shell leather and strops and prices - straight razor boys!

Interesting, but with some misinformation too. The person who said that
"Shell is actually produced from a part of the subcutaneous muscle layer in horses, and other mammals, called the panniculus carnosus" was completely wrong. 'Horsehide' is the skin of the animal, not its muscles. Muscle' doesn't tan into anything usable, even the flat muscle sheets in the anatomy. (There are several of them in most mammals, including humans.) The muscle fiber bundles would separate rather quickly, like a pot roast that's been cooked too long. "Shell" is just a location designator, as said by another poster. "Shell:- Horsehide rump pieces. Cordovan:- Specially tanned Shell pieces" You can clearly see where this location is in the Horween hide chart, and if you watch the Horween video you can see the shells being cut out of the larger hide.

In that forum, one of the posters referred to his strop leather as have a feel of 'velvet.' I think he was having the same problems that I have trying to describe the texture of a good quality horsehide strop. It's hard and solid but at the same time feels soft and malleable. Interesting stuff...

Stitchawl