If I made these, would anyone buy 'em?

[wdwrx]

My work-shop was hummin' this weekend, and I made my own double sided paddle strop with latigo leather.
Since I found out this morning that I'll be out of work all week and I NEED to keep busy I was hoping to gauge interest in these. I was thinking of a price in the $ 50- 60 range, well below TI's price for a similar product, and offering them for sale on B/S/T.
If I made 'em, would anyone buy 'em?
If so, do you see any improvements that could be made?

(note to Mods: if this post is inappropriate please delete it.)

 

[domino]

Nice job. What is the length and width?
Also, what kind of wood is it ?

 

[Will P.C.]

That looks really nice.

 

[wdwrx]

Thanks.
The width is 2 3/8", working length is 9". It should have been 2 1/2" but I made a mistake and had to trim it a bit.... The wood is maple.

 

[huntmol]

Wow, that looks pretty damn great!
I thought it was just a regular paddle, until I noticed that the center was hollow to give it more of a stropping feel. Nice work.

Also, does Latigo take ChromOx very well?
I've only used it on Horsehide & Cowhide before.

 

[huntmol]

Oh, and if I were you I would start a poll in the vendor/shopping section to more accurately guage interest. It's tough to tell people's feelings from posts sometimes.

 

[Tony Miller]

Beautiful! I really like the neat, clean design and I think the size is fine. An inch or two longer may be nice for home use but once they get too long they don't pack well for travel. I'd opt for shorter anyway on a paddle as it is the best choice for travel.

I think the latigo would do well with powdered chromium as the oily/waxy surface would grab the dry powder well and not provide too thick an edge.

Nice work. If I "needed" another paddle I would glaldy pay that much for one.

BTW, are you sealing the exposed wood with a finish to keep it bright and clean looking?

Tony

 

[Suzuki]

A couple of thoughts:

I think the price is reasonable, but you likely need to get some reviews before folks will plunk down that much cash for an unknown product.

Perhaps some information regarding your skills, where you get the leather, how you bond the leather to the wood, etc. will help give people comfort about the product.

Also, in addition to Tony's comments about sealing the wood, it might be worth putting on a stain/urethane combo product, as it would give the strop a more finished look.

Finally, how thick is the handle - some guys might want to know how well it will fit their hand.

Nice work!

 

[Tony Miller]

Good points. While to me it seems a fair price for the amount of work one would have to do it is often hard to break into the market at the higher end.

From the photos they look well made but an explanation of your skills/background can help build confidence in your product.

I know in my case after all these years I am selling myself as well as my strops.

Not being critical here, just offering tips to help you present what looks like a well made item.

Some behind the scenes testing is always good too. How well with the leather resist cupping if stored in a humid place, will your bond of leather to wood stand up to water or solvent based abrasives, etc...? Always better to find out now that have a customer post a bad review later. I always try to think what is the worst thing a customer can do to my product and plan for that!


Tony

 

[wdwrx]

Fantastic! Some very lucid points. I'll try to address them as best I can:
I am a journeyman carpenter,(20+ yrs exp.) so the wood side of the entire Str8 experience is a piece of cake (scales etc). I've got a moderatly well epuiped work-shop.

This strop:
The handle thickness is 3/4 x 1 3/8, x 5"+/- Kiln dried maple, bonded with a water-proof carpenter's glue. The Latigo was sourced from a local saddlery shop, 1/8 thick, and I chose a very clean section to use to wrap it. I sanded it with 400 gr sandpaper and then burnished with a beer bottle. Treated one side w/ CrOx, and the other w/ CeOx. It's bonded to the wood with LePage's Contact Cement. As for long term durability re: cupping, I can't say, though I'd be more worried about the wood's stability before the leather's. The weak point is where to leather terminates at the handle. Here on this "prototype" I just used gap-filling CA to keep it secure. Future plans would include a bradded wooden wedge to pin the leather down more securely. And I should have thinned the leather a bit at that point as well.

This one is finished with only a single quick coat of Tung oil, any future strops would defintly be finished properly. I was just too lazy to do it to this one

Thanks for the great pointers, and rest easy Tony, I'm not making any plans to get into the strop making industry in a big way... I just want to earn enough to buy a bottle of Creed GIT, which I absolutely cannot justify to SWMBO any other way.

 

[huntmol]

Cesium oxide? Is that right? Never heard of that... Finer "grit" than Chromium oxide?

 

[Seraphim]

Looks very well crafted!

Not a paddle man myself, but even so, that looks tempting!

 

[azmark]

I always look for things that make it easier for travel. Im in hotels about 15 days a month on average and really beat things to heck and back. I use an old horse hide strop for travel and always have to think about how I'm going to hang the strop. So a lot of the stuff sold as travel items don't pan out. My TI paddle snapped a few months ago because it's pretty thin.

The price is reasonable. I'd prefer a non pasted strop to add my own paste and apply it my way, not to say you don't know how but I'm a little obsessive like that.

I'd be curious on how the leather is attached. The temperature on airplanes checked luggage vary greatly and effect everything. My creams harden up and tubes blow out sometimes since I check everything because of straight razors.

 

[rickboone1]

I'd prefer a non-pasted strop. For travel I wouldn't want the paste getting on all of my clothes.

 

[wdwrx]

Cesium oxide? Is that right? Never heard of that... Finer "grit" than Chromium oxide?

GSSixgun reports Cerium Oxide as being .25 microns, for that little extra polishing.

I'll work away on the second version tomorrow and Wednesday. First I need to build a proper tennoning jig.... I'll keep you all posted. This one I banged out as an afterthought while I was waiting for a CA finish to cure between coats. Stay tuned

 

[Will P.C.]

I never answered the question in my previous post. I would probably buy the SRD modular strop, just because it is a better deal IMO

I think if you focused on travel paddle strops (w/wo paste options) at a lower price you might get a bigger bite.

Def important to know your competition, I know these probably take a lot of hours of labor.

 

[dod.e.ratherwell]

WDWRX, as I am just up the road from you I would buy a finished version and try it. Although I am a complete newb to straights (9th shave today) I could put it through a newb's paces and provide feedback!

 

[perogee]

I think that is a great looking piece of kit. I imagine I could whip up a leather sheath/bag for that quite quickly, which would make it more travel worthy if it were pasted.

Would you offer something like this with options on wood type and such? I could see that being a selling point, being able to choose the wood to suit what you like (and it could allow for a range of prices, for those of us who are cheap , or for those looking for a little more high end)

 

[superbleu]

Cesium oxide? Is that right? Never heard of that... Finer "grit" than Chromium oxide?

I asked Keith At handamerica about this stuff, he said it is finer, but it's much softer than CrOx. He didn't say this per say, but what I took from our email exchange. The newer blades made today are hardened more than vintage steel, so the CesOx might not work well for the newer blades, but I guess it would be good for older vintage blades.

 

[LessLemming]

Cerium Oxide is not per se finer than chromium oxide.
Like Cr2O3, Ce02 is a crystal that is available in any size.
You will have to watch out (just like with chromium oxide) if it is fine enough for our purpose.
It is easily available from nanoscale to 300 mesh.

I will tell you a little something about CeO2.
Cerium is a so called rare earth element and chemically spoken it belongs to the lanthanides.
You porbably heard of these in the news.

Ce is the most common element of rare earth ores and has an abundancy of about 60ppm in the upper earth crust.
It is a by-product readily available.

Cerium in its oxide form is often times used as a cheap but highly effective polishing compound,
rivaling and beating diamond containing polishing agents.
It is used as a catalyst in petrolium cracking and in UV-absorbing glasses like the windshield of your car, as well.

What makes cerium oxide so special it can rival almost any industrial polishing compound?

Therefore several polishing theories have to be explained.
Yes, there are several and none of them is considered "proven".
The first and most logic one is the "mechanic" theory.
It describes peaks on every surface that are removed during a fine polishing action leaving a less rough surface. This theory explains these actions with tiny surface "cracks".

The second theory is the "flowing" theory. It describes a plastic flow due to high forces. Surfaces are plastic at micro-level.
this can be illustrated easily: try to bend a 3mm bar of aluminium.
You can´t. Now try to deform a 13µm thick aluminium foil. Now you can!

The third theory is a solely chemically one.
It describes some kind of pickling action.
The surface to be polished is chemically attacked by the abrasive (wich will btw. do actions according to theory 1 and/or 2 as well).
This changes the properties of the surface, as it now consists of a new material. It might change it´s resistance to wear and abrasion, or might be soluable in water.

CeO2 is known to provide such chemical processes.
BUT, and that´s the downside, this works for glass only!
CeO2 is suspected to be able to react with silicon atoms in glass,
creating a surface that is either soluable in water or has a soft consistancy like gel.
Al2O3 and diamond are not known to have such effects.
Combined with usual abrasive action much smoother results can be achieved.

I highly doubt this would work for steel.
And I highly doubt we would have a benefit from it,
as smooth surface and low roughness are incomparable with smooth edges and low roughness of edge!

For metal works, CeO2 is just another polishing agent.
Unfortunately it does not provide as good results in metal polishing as it does in glass polishing,
where it is highly regarded.

BTW. Cerium Oxide does not care if your blade is hardened at 40°, 50° or 65° HRC.
It is also not true that older blades are softer.
It exceeds the hardenes of steel anyways!