Advice on a Strop

Devonmoonshire · Jul 12, 2015

My first Straight will be here Tuesday and I will definitely need a strop to go with it before I use it. I did some searching and for my first strop I am taking the advice to go inexpensive so I know I should not invest a ton of cash into an expensive one, and I also need a practice razor to practice my stropping technique with. Soooooo I am thinking of just ordering the GD Set with a strop, is the strop that comes with it suitable for actual use? Or are there any others such as Ardent, Scalpmaster, Rite Edge, any of those that I should consider or others that may come with the paste or something???

Any and all suggestions for a decent yet inexpensive strop are greatly appreciated as I do not want to even entertain the thought of trying my first straight without a good stropping. I hear tell that doing so is taking my vital life's blood in my own hands and may result in losing copious amounts of said fluid.

Sincerely;
Nate

Jnatcat · Jul 12, 2015

Look up Whipped Dog, not alot of $$ and will give you what you need.

Devonmoonshire · Jul 12, 2015

panther308 said:
Look up Whipped Dog, not alot of $$ and will give you what you need.

LOL Whipped Dog is where I have my Straight and Badger Hair knot coming in from on Tuesday :w00t:

So given I have only One day to get myself a strop I have decided that since I do have a great deal of Duck Cloth already I am going to go ahead and go get a slice of leather, a couple low profile fasteners and a stainless clamp and make my own strop for the time being. That will give me one in hand when my Straight gets here and then I can go ahead and take my time deciding on a really nice strop, which is looking like it will be a rich man from WD.

Sincerely;
Nate

Jnatcat · Jul 12, 2015

Nate,

You can also use newspaper folded in a 2"-3" wide strip over a towel bar in a pinch.

Slash McCoy · Jul 12, 2015

I like the Big Daddy from www.starshaving.com myself. I have stropped on newspaper, too. Take a full size sheet of newspaper and fold it longways into a 3" wide strip. Pass one end over a towel rack or something similar, pinch both ends together and pull it tight. If you slice it to bits, don't cry, just fold up another one and think about the nice leather strop you could have just destroyed.

I have also stropped on denim. You can stretch it, or a tshirt, over a board that is nice and flat. Not eyeball flat, but true flat. Or a glass pane from a jalousy window. Whatevah. Lately I have experimented with stropping on a 1/16" thick 12" x 4" sheet of balsa, held by one end and supported at the other end on a fixed object, allowing it to bow ever so slightly in the middle. I maintain my edges by stropping on diamond pasted balsa anyway, so this was a natural extension. Jury is still out on the unpasted balsa, but it seems as good as newspaper, which is to say not as good as a proper leather strop but better than nothing, I think.

Don't use a leather belt. They are not wide enough and not flat enough, generally.

The Poor Man Strop will get you in the game. When you upgrade, you can keep it for a travel strop.

Devonmoonshire · Jul 12, 2015

Slash McCoy said:
I like the Big Daddy from www.starshaving.com myself. I have stropped on newspaper, too. Take a full size sheet of newspaper and fold it longways into a 3" wide strip. Pass one end over a towel rack or something similar, pinch both ends together and pull it tight. If you slice it to bits, don't cry, just fold up another one and think about the nice leather strop you could have just destroyed.

I have also stropped on denim. You can stretch it, or a tshirt, over a board that is nice and flat. Not eyeball flat, but true flat. Or a glass pane from a jalousy window. Whatevah. Lately I have experimented with stropping on a 1/16" thick 12" x 4" sheet of balsa, held by one end and supported at the other end on a fixed object, allowing it to bow ever so slightly in the middle. I maintain my edges by stropping on diamond pasted balsa anyway, so this was a natural extension. Jury is still out on the unpasted balsa, but it seems as good as newspaper, which is to say not as good as a proper leather strop but better than nothing, I think.

Don't use a leather belt. They are not wide enough and not flat enough, generally.

The Poor Man Strop will get you in the game. When you upgrade, you can keep it for a travel strop.

Wow, I am REALLY liking their prices on the hanging strops. They look great and I am sure that if I am careful one of them could last me a lifetime realistically speaking, and that of course means being VERY careful not to damage it badly.

What I have been doing though in preparation for getting a straight:

1: I have 11 stones for sharpening my pocket and kitchen knives from 100 grit all the way up to a red Japanese red clay water stone for my sushi knife (Not sure of the exact grit on that one but I have tree topped hair on my arm with the blades that come off of it).

2: I re shaped the blade on one of my older pocket knives to a very thin edge to practice both honing a razor edge AND stropping muscle memory on one of my old belts, WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS on the Turns on the Spine ONLY as well as Virtually NO Pressure.

Hopefully doing this muscle memory exercises will allow me to be able to take to stropping my razor properly right out of the gate although I know that Honing it will take much trial and error which I will practice on a GD Razor I plan to get here in a few weeks.

So am I on the right track to success here with these theories?
Sincerely;
Nate

Slash McCoy · Jul 12, 2015

one nice thing about the Big Daddy is if you DO hack up the leather, you can easily replace it with a replacement leather from Star Shaving, or a piece you found and cut yourself. So there is that. Oh, and since it is a wide strop, you can also just swap ends. That puts the sliced up right hand edge over on the left side, where you won't encounter the nicks, as long as they are right on the edge. This would not be an option with a skinny minny strop.

I never could understand the rationale behind recommending itty bitty strops, paddles, and hones. I think some folks recommend them only because they are stuck with them. Sure, they work, but as with most things, bigger or more of a good thing is gooder.

Devonmoonshire · Jul 13, 2015

Slash McCoy said:
one nice thing about the Big Daddy is if you DO hack up the leather, you can easily replace it with a replacement leather from Star Shaving, or a piece you found and cut yourself. So there is that. Oh, and since it is a wide strop, you can also just swap ends. That puts the sliced up right hand edge over on the left side, where you won't encounter the nicks, as long as they are right on the edge. This would not be an option with a skinny minny strop.

I never could understand the rationale behind recommending itty bitty strops, paddles, and hones. I think some folks recommend them only because they are stuck with them. Sure, they work, but as with most things, bigger or more of a good thing is gooder.

Excellent advice, and I may end up getting a Big Daddy or an OVB from them at some point, This time I went with a fairly inexpensive strop that also came with 3 straight edge razors and 2 pairs of scissors. I wanted a practice razor to Hone, (Pardon the pun), my honing technique with to verify if the stones I already have will suffice to get me a razors edge on my Straight from WD without ruining the hard work that Larry put into the razor I intend to shave with. Not too bad a deal either, a strop, 3 straight edge razors and 2 pair of scissors for less than 40 bucks.

Devonmoonshire · Jul 17, 2015

Okay due to the fact that it came with 3 straight razors, 2 pair of scissors AND a brand new strop I got the Hashir Strop from the Bay. What I need to know is if there is anything I should do to the canvas or leather Prior to stropping my razor on it. I have checked it for nicks and burrs and I cannot see any with the naked eye.

Anything else I should do?

Sincerely;
Nate
Here is the strop I got, along side 12K finishing stone and the three straights, (Factory sharp only so good practice for me to get my Razor Honing skills up to par before I ever put my Shaving Razor to a stone.)

View attachment 587496

rockviper · Jul 18, 2015

Other than rubbing the leather down before use with the heel of your palm, strop away!

I had not heard of Hashir before your post, but found this old thread. Hopefully quality control has improved and you'll end up with a nice, workable kit. You will most likely have to send them out for honing and hope that they'll take and hold an edge.

In parallel, you might also want to grab a "Sight Unseen" blade from Larry over at Whipped Dog. That way, you know that you will have a good, solid blade with a reliable edge. The Hashirs might work out fine, but then again ....

Keep us posted on how things progress.

alpster · Jul 18, 2015

Don't expect much from the 'Hasir' razors. They are problematic. The strop should work fine though. Stone may be good also.

Devonmoonshire · Jul 18, 2015

rockviper said:
Other than rubbing the leather down before use with the heel of your palm, strop away!

I had not heard of Hashir before your post, but found this old thread. Hopefully quality control has improved and you'll end up with a nice, workable kit. You will most likely have to send them out for honing and hope that they'll take and hold an edge.

In parallel, you might also want to grab a "Sight Unseen" blade from Larry over at Whipped Dog. That way, you know that you will have a good, solid blade with a reliable edge. The Hashirs might work out fine, but then again ....

Keep us posted on how things progress.

Thank you very much. Just wanted to make sure that I was not going to ruin the fine edge that Larry put on this Sight Unseen I have from WD. I am heading up to the only game in town around here today so I can get some strop paste for the canvas portion of the strop. TAOS is all we have around here for it.

As far as the Hashir Razors. I am just using those to practice Honing Straights. I have been using stones since I was 12 years old and have literally shaved with some of my pocket knives. That being said, I know full well that sharpening a straight razor and sharpening knives are entirely different skills all together. So once I am able to get a shave ready edge on one of the Hashir blades I will feel more comfortable taking to sharpening my Straights that I intend to use.

From the looks of that thread I can conclude that IF I can get a shave ready edge on one of these suckers then I can put an edge on Anything LMAO

Thank you so much for the help on this.
Sincerely;
Nate

Search

Advice on a Strop

Devonmoonshire

Jnatcat

Devonmoonshire

Jnatcat

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets

Devonmoonshire

Slash McCoy

I freehand dog rockets

Devonmoonshire

Devonmoonshire

rockviper

I got moves like Jagger

alpster

Devonmoonshire

Similar threads