Strops! Who knows them, and who wants to show off some knowledge?

[NJBillK]

First off, my apologies for the photo size.

I did some looking around and I found a little bit of info on this, but nothing too informative.
-It seems to be of Russian made skin or an old Russian tanning style, that is still up for debate.
-It is often considered a pretty good "Beginner" strop for a straight razor.
-Comparable to (or slightly less than) a "Red Imp" strop.
-This one is still very soft and supple, with no cracks, tears, cuts or gouges (the marks seen are superficial and are of no concern).

Considering I paid $10 for both, I was thinking of mounting them to a hardwood base via rivets in the corners and screws to keep tension and not Have to glue them down.

-Should I hit the linen strop with 2k SiC sandpaper to soften the build up and open the fabric a little for more " bite"?
-What compound should I use on the leather?
》The linen?

Pics:

 

[stitchawl]

Do NOT use any compound on the leather! This is made of shell cordovan horsehide, the very best leather you can get for the final stropping of a perfect edge. Putting ANY compound on something like this is like having your Olympic Gold Medal bronzed...

If you want to use some compound, take another ordinary piece of cowhide, denim, or even newspaper and put your compound on that. This strop is for finishing.

However, if you want to treat that strop properly, do give it a bit of leather 'care.' Use just a few drops of any good brand of leather conditioner. Just a few drops, NOT a few tablespoons, and rub it into the leather with the heel of your palm. If you don't have leather conditioner, go out to your local shoe store and buy a jar of 'shoe cream.' (NOT SHOE POLISH! Cream...) Put 3-4 pea-sized dots on the strop and work that into the leather at least once a year. That should be the ONLY thing you do to this leather. Don't sand it. Don't grease it. Don't oil it. Just 'feed' it some shoe cream once a year, and only use it for your final stropping. Your blade should be so sharp before you use this strop that you will only need 10-15 strokes with it. Nothing more.


Stitchawl

 

[NJBillK]

Fantastic! Thanks for the input.

I have a local shoe repair/cobbler I can take a swing into and look for the shoe cream. I will be sure to bring the strop so I can make sure that he and I are on the same page.

Do you have any experience with the Linen strop? The surface is glazed over and I am not sure if that is from usage or something that was previously used on it.
-The glaze seems to be pretty uniform from end to end and edge to edge, also having a bit on the underside too.
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Knowing what I do now, I will likely go back to the shop and buy the second one he had hanging up as well.

It didn't have the linen strop, and was in a little more used condition, but still very serviceable.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

^^Ditto Stitch's advice. No compound on the horsehide leather; it would be a waste of the premium leather. Compound can be effective on most anything; make an inexpensive strop of leather or linen/denim/canvas for that.

If it were mine, I'd USE the strop for quite a while (weeks, months) before doing anything radical at all, even on the linen side. Not sure sanding would do that much good on linen anyway, perhaps besides accelerating wear on it; should be better ways to clean it up, if it needs that. In searching the web, there seem to be many suggestions for simple detergent + water + scrub brush cleaning techniques (by HAND) for them; that might be the common-sense approach. The 'glaze' on it might be wax/paraffin that's built into them; may not be a problem at all, if so.


David

 

[pathwinder14]

Does a clean leather strop without any compound have a high enough friction co-efficient to effect blade polishing or removal of micro burrs? All the research I've done says no. I have even seen some microscopic views where this is the case.

In the cases where someone may say "yes", is it really because any dirt particulates that have accumulated on the strop over time are doing the polishing?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Does a clean leather strop without any compound have a high enough friction co-efficient to effect blade polishing or removal of micro burrs? All the research I've done says no. I have even seen some microscopic views where this is the case.

In the cases where someone may say "yes", is it really because any dirt particulates that have accumulated on the strop over time are doing the polishing?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

'Micro-burrs', as implied to be very, very small and fine, are EASILY removed by stropping; even on materials as plain as paper, fabric (linen, denim, etc), bare leather or wood. Since burrs are already weakened steel, it doesn't usually take much to strip them from an edge, though some burrs that are much heavier and made of very ductile steel might need more true abrasion to be removed.

Polishing can be another matter; the ultra-fine silicates in leather are sometimes abrasive enough to do some polishing on simpler steels. Steels heavier in hard carbides won't be as easily polished, however.


David

 

[pathwinder14]

'Micro-burrs', as implied to be very, very small and fine, are EASILY removed by stropping; even on materials as plain as paper, fabric (linen, denim, etc), bare leather or wood. Since burrs are already weakened steel, it doesn't usually take much to strip them from an edge, though some burrs that are much heavier and made of very ductile steel might need more true abrasion to be removed.

Polishing can be another matter; the ultra-fine silicates in leather are sometimes abrasive enough to do some polishing on simpler steels. Steels heavier in hard carbides won't be as easily polished, however.


David

Thank you Sir! That helps greatly. Now I know why some steels (8CR or 1095) strop well with no compound but other steels (S30 V for example) do better with compound. I need to look at the Steel chart and Grit chart again and create a pseudo list of strop to steel ratios. Thanks again.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Thank you Sir! That helps greatly. Now I know why some steels (8CR or 1095) strop well with no compound but other steels (S30 V for example) do better with compound. I need to look at the Steel chart and Grit chart again and create a pseudo list of strop to steel ratios. Thanks again.

Those two steels are prime examples of each extreme; both of which presented 'epiphany' moments to me in learning the differences between very wear-resistant steels (S30V) and not wear-resistant (1095). S30V stropped on bare leather or even with a non-aggressive compound like chromium oxide (green) is usually an exercise in futility; 1095 however, and similar steels like Case's CV can show very significant improvement in stropping on simple materials like bare leather or denim. There are some 'in-between' examples, with variations only in heat treat making one steel either very simple to strop, or very tedious. 420HC is an example, with lower-hardness versions being very stubbornly ductile, needing aggressive abrasion with compound to remove burrs; but when taken just a couple points higher in HRC hardness, the burrs become much easier to knock off by simpler stropping means.


David