How often do you use a pasted strop?

[EL Alamein]

I *think* they are the same as the Dovo strops. Dr. Moss would know better about this. So if that's true the Dovo strops at Classic should have the same linen.

Chris

[mparker762]

Chris and mparker, what is your advice for the best linen? Tony Miller's linen feels very rough and I'm interested in his genuine linen. I also have an Illinois 127 whose linen I feel indifferent towards.

Me too. The 127 linen was better after I pumiced off the plastic, but it's still not up to the vintage stuff.

I've also had good luck with Jemico - my first strop was a Jemico Bismark, and after I gave it away (friend needed a starter strop) my edges were never the same until I started using the linen on my vintage strops.

Tony Miller's canvas works ok for me, I haven't tried his genuine linen. But the roughness isn't really important, since the blade only hits the tops of the threads anyway; my dubl duck strop has extremely rough linen and it works great.

I've also had good luck with a denim-covered paddle strop that I made. Unfortunately denim isn't stiff enough to be used on a hanging strop.

I've got several 127's, and though I love the feel of their leather, what I've found the linen to be best suited for is pastes - I pumice off the plastic and keep going until I've raised a bit of nap, then apply the paste. You can't effectively paste it while it's covered in plastic, since the paste just rubs off down into the crevices of the threads.

[SolingenFan]

I have no idea if my Dovo linen is as good as some other brands,
but frankly, I have a sharp razor now.

I do 50 laps on the linen , and some 50 on the leather.
Then I shave the moustache and chin a couple of times WTG and XTG.

I do a 20 passes on the linen and leather again.

then I do a ATG on the moustache and chin, proceed with the cheeks and the rest.

Then resharpen the blade for a final WTG and touchups.

That way , my blade is sharp enough to do the job without having to press harder.

If I don't resharpen ...

Or if i shave the cheeks first, I can't properly shave my lips anymore...

[brothers]

This is an interesting discussion of strops and stropping practices from just a couple of years ago.

I've been using a Keene-Edge Silk Finish strop made by Hess Hair Milk Lab. It seems better than the linen strop on my Illinois 127 strop. Only lately, maybe in the last month, I've become a bit disappointed with myself because it seems the maintenance of my razors' edges is slipping.

I've got to take a step back and think about what I used to do when I wasn't having problems. I made myself some new bench-top strops, but haven't placed any of them into use yet. It's looking like I might have to go back to the hones first, before the maintenance stropping comes to the forefront.

[EL Alamein]

I remember this thread! Not much has changed with me except I use the regular vintage linen a lot more than the green vintage linen. I prefer it slightly now but in truth they probably give near the same performance. I still don't use pasted strops.

Gary, I would take one of your blades and go from start to finish with it and make and entirely new edge on it. Reset your bevel with a 4k grit and then go up the line of grits until you get to your finishing hone. Finish off as usual then when you're using the blade employ the linen as desribed in this thread. It really does help maintain an edge.

If this works out for you (and I'm confident it should) you can repeat the process with any other razors. Hope that helps.

Chris