Birch Polypore

[Proinsias]

Anyone else used this stuff for stropping?

I have chunk lying around from the local woods and have used it for stropping small knives a little. Tonight I didn't have a strop to hand but did have this so gave it a whirl.

It is very small for stropping razors but had a really nice feel to it and was rather forgiving on the edge. I will be keeping an eye out for a larger specimen and cutting it more carefully.

It's not made of magic fairy dust or anything but I got my first shave with a fungal finish and I suspect a large well proportioned piece could be fun to play around with if I spy one.

 

[Alum of Potash]

Thanks for posting. Just now looked it up on Wikipedia where it's also known as "razor strop." Very interesting. I've used Corsican fennel for stropping knives and razors a little. Sort of like bamboo.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Most wood makes an excellent strop or strop substrate, as does brown paper and news print. A folded newspaper looped over a towel bar, is a great emergency strop.

I use a pasted MDF board for stropping knives and tools and a MDF wheel for tools. By itself it is a good strop, unpasted as is balsa, a popular substrate.

But for razors, the problem is that you do not know what the grit or the particle size is. Even plain leather contains grit, probably from the grass eaten and exposure to weather.

Years ago, I was on a stropping kick and tested all kinds of substrates and all the popular pastes, sprays and most any abrasive powder for stropping razors, fun stuff.

After years of experimenting, the best paste I found are Diamonds and CBN on a paper strop. Diamonds for cutting, CBN for polishing. CBN is the most flexible and leaves a better finish on razors for me, and the grit size and performance are absolutely repeatable. .10um CBN is about 160,000 grit equivalent, too keen for my skin and will leave weapers. .25 or .125 um is a very nice keen shaving edge and will maintain a razor edge for a very long time.

Plain old Chromium Oxide pigment from Kramer pigments is a close second.

 

[stone and strop]

Interesting, thank you.
I will keep an eye out on the next camping adventure.

 

[Gamma]

Anyone else used this stuff for stropping? .

Just saw this..

Besides being useful as a strop, it's also good for making a quick bandage, or to keep smoldering for starting fires when camping. Has a lot of uses actually.

For strop use, it has a narrow window of opportunity, and finding a large piece proves to be more difficult that it should be. It's definitely not fairy dust, it's just that at one point in it's existence, it actually feels somewhat leathery and it can be stropped on. I am sure there is a way to keep that rubbery/leathering feeling going for a while longer. But, left alone, it dries up pretty hard.

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

Fairly new to the honing/stropping routine.

Lots of information available, just sometimes difficult to separate the B.S. from the real stuff!

I have been buying up used razors from ebay to see what I really like, and all of them whether advertised as "shave ready", or not, needs attention. I recently bought my first new razor, its a Rigarazor 7/8. What a difference! This thing just glides over my face!

My current honing routine is: Set the bevel with a 3000 grid, progress to a 8000 grid and then a 12000 grid. At this stage it is never ready to shave with and I strop with chromium oxide on a leather paddle 50 strokes and then 50 strokes on the leather strop. This gives me a result that is good enough to shave with, but not quite comfortable, especially against the grain for the second pass.

Question: Is it right to strop on the paddle with the chromium oxide? None of the tutorials I watched shows this, but it seems to be the only way I can get it sharper than what the stones can give me.

 

[steveclarkus]

If you really really want a blazing sharp edge. Read @Slash McCoy thread “How to Use Pasted Balsa Strop”. Follow those instructions precisely and you will live happily ever after. Pasted balsa will set you free!

 

[Biltong & Boerewors]

Thanks, after writing this I read the posts about balsa wood strops and I have started using some diamond paste. Getting there!

 

[Proinsias]

Just saw this..

Besides being useful as a strop, it's also good for making a quick bandage, or to keep smoldering for starting fires when camping. Has a lot of uses actually.

For strop use, it has a narrow window of opportunity, and finding a large piece proves to be more difficult that it should be. It's definitely not fairy dust, it's just that at one point in it's existence, it actually feels somewhat leathery and it can be stropped on. I am sure there is a way to keep that rubbery/leathering feeling going for a while longer. But, left alone, it dries up pretty hard.

Yeah, many uses. Was boiling it up for a tisane when fresh and had dried a few chunks for tinder, it's not quite up there with chaga for these uses but does the job. Didn't know about the bandage use thanks! The little chunk I cut for stropping experiments has remained in pretty good condition for 6 months or so, even over a record breaking summer here, but is slowly drying out.