Because we Americans appear to have outgrown 2-inch wide strops, @Tony Miller can't sell them anymore and has put his remaining 2-inch wide pieces on sale. I recently took advantage of this to order a Notovan strop and an Oil-Tanned Bridle strop with cotton elements (got a further discount by ordering more than one). Upon arrival, I took things apart and sandwiched the leather components back-to-back (removing the leather caps and D-rings at the bottom) and the cotton components back-to-back (keeping the leather caps and D-rings at the bottom there). I asked Tony about any linen elements and he said that he didn't sell his remaining stock there as they didn't meet the grade. Kindly, he offered to throw in a couple of pieces gratis to my order as placed. As always, Tony was very open to my questions, providing a wealth of information on how I might set up what I intended to do.
Just to see how they behaved, I stropped on these for a while last night, and then again briefly after today's shave with a Bengall "Cast Steel" razor. Shave was wonderful, by the way. The Notovan had a very light draw and the Oil-Tanned Bridle just a little bit more, maybe medium-light draw. With light-draw strops like these, I do not see what is the problem with their being narrow! I had absolutely no problem stropping on these with a slight X-pass. The cotton elements I am thinking to paste, although Tony did not encourage this as they are soft, potentially leading to edge rounding. The linen pieces were surprisingly good as far as I'm concerned. I put leather caps and D-rings at each end of one of them and it works very well.-
One thing I will add is that in using the leather back-to-back, it takes on an even thicker quality, reducing deflection during the pass as compared to one piece used alone. The cotton elements would act in a similar way, but there is softness from the surface on down, so it still remains an issue there. The linen is thin, but the surface is firm, but with nice pieces like these (!), I think I want to leave them as they are.
So really, I encourage you to give 2-inch wide strops like these a try! It's really not all that difficult given practice, and a great deal right now. And who knows, maybe one day the wind will change and we'll all be singing the praises of narrow strops once again.
As shown below, from top to bottom: Notovan surface, Oil-Tanned Bridle surface, cotton element surface, cotton elements back-to-back, linen surface.
Just to see how they behaved, I stropped on these for a while last night, and then again briefly after today's shave with a Bengall "Cast Steel" razor. Shave was wonderful, by the way. The Notovan had a very light draw and the Oil-Tanned Bridle just a little bit more, maybe medium-light draw. With light-draw strops like these, I do not see what is the problem with their being narrow! I had absolutely no problem stropping on these with a slight X-pass. The cotton elements I am thinking to paste, although Tony did not encourage this as they are soft, potentially leading to edge rounding. The linen pieces were surprisingly good as far as I'm concerned. I put leather caps and D-rings at each end of one of them and it works very well.-
One thing I will add is that in using the leather back-to-back, it takes on an even thicker quality, reducing deflection during the pass as compared to one piece used alone. The cotton elements would act in a similar way, but there is softness from the surface on down, so it still remains an issue there. The linen is thin, but the surface is firm, but with nice pieces like these (!), I think I want to leave them as they are.
So really, I encourage you to give 2-inch wide strops like these a try! It's really not all that difficult given practice, and a great deal right now. And who knows, maybe one day the wind will change and we'll all be singing the praises of narrow strops once again.
As shown below, from top to bottom: Notovan surface, Oil-Tanned Bridle surface, cotton element surface, cotton elements back-to-back, linen surface.
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