unevenness on hard felt strop

I have a TM hard wool strop that has a hard, slightly firmer/thicker spot on it. I think I sprayed a bit too much diamond spray there, hence why it's hard. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to even it out? I thought maybe sandpaper but that would get the abrasive from the sandpaper on it. Also, I noticed that the welt has a direction to its grain, which seems to make stropping in one direction different from stropping in the other direction since one way is with the grain and the other is against. Has anyone had any problems with this? I think this has led one side of my razor to round more than the other but am not too sure since I have only stropped for a few months (less on the wool).

Dan,
Maybe brush it with one of those firm shoeshine brushes mean for suede (not the hard pumice for buffing suede).

Uneven buildups with pastes is one of the only issues I have with flexable pasted strops. Any uneveness is easily felt where the rigidity of the hard leather paddles seems to make it less noticable.

If you think it may be actually in the felt though drop me an email through my storefront (I rarely see PMs here) and I'll give you a replacement but I have not noticed this in any strips so far.

I do think there is a different feel on many materials as direction changes. Some feel smoother in one direction than in others.

Thanks,
Tony

That seemed to work pretty well. Thanks, Tony! I noticed that there is some unevenness on the untreated side, so I guess it's just a property of the material. Scrubbing seems to make it mostly a nonissue. I imagine it probably is from however the wool was packed/woven before being pressed.

There is a "grain" to the material as it is rolled in processing/manufacturing from the mill.


Tony

I wonder if it's possible to manufacture it with the grain running perpendicular to how it does on these existing hard felt sheets. That would probably require producing much wider sheets, though, and may be more challenging to cut, possibly not worth it for the small gain.

Also, out of curiosity, Tony, have you experimented much with making hard felt paddle strops? I'm interested in knowing if there would be any advantages to that. The only disadvantages I could think of are only being able to use one side of the wool and potential issues with paste/adhesive interaction as a result of the permeability of the felt. I have a spare sheet of hard wool felt from the diamond spray order I made with Hand American. I'm thinking of making a paddle strop with it when/if I have free time.

Darren,
I experimented a bit but as wool felt is fairly new to stropping I am unsure how long it holds up. I know leather will go for many, many years. hand American was the first with wool felt but I still don't think it has been more than 2 or 3 years since Keith introduced it. On a hanging strop, even if it breaks down the replacement is easy. On a paddle you loose the cost/labor of the felt as well as the wood.

Removing leather or wool from a wooden paddle then sanding smooth is not cost effective from a labor standpoint. I have done it and can make a paddle faster than I can re-work one.

I'd love to offer the wool felt paddles but don't want them to break down quickly and be the guy who introduced them

I'm more for leather use but offer felt because that is what the market wants right now and I know it works well enough.

Tony

I think you should be telling the market what it needs Tony. Not the other way around.

danjared said:

I have a TM hard wool strop that has a hard, slightly firmer/thicker spot on it. I think I sprayed a bit too much diamond spray there, hence why it's hard. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to even it out?

Click to expand...

It'll even out with use.