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Chamois Strop

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I use to use a clean denim strop to clean and dry my edges after each shave but found it a bit too harsh on the edges. Then I had an idea.

I had a piece of clean unused natural chamois in my kit so I thought about using it to clean and dry my edges. The chamois was far to weak to make into a strop on its own so I decided to bond it to the denim strop. I cut the chamois to the desired size and then used rubber glue to bond it to my denim strop.

This has all work very well. The chamois is much more genle on my edges and readily absorbs any moisture on the blade edge. If it gets too dirty, I can just wash it by hand with a mild soap.

IMG_20201121_135546.jpg
 
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I use to use a clean denim strop to clean and dry my edges after each shave but found it a bit too harsh on the edges. Then I had an idea.

I had a piece of clean unused natural chamois in my kit so I thought about using it to clean and dry my edges. The chamois was far to weak to make into a strop on its own so I decided to bond it to the denim strop. I cut the chamois to the desired size and then used rubber glue to bond it to my denim strop.

This has all work very well. The chamois is much more genle on my edges and readily absorbs any moisture on the blade edge. If it gets too dirty, I can just wash it by hand with a mild soap.


cool setup. thats wierd.....I find denim to be an excellent strop material prior to shaving. I made a board strop with foam rubber underneath to simulate my leg. works like a charm for me.

my edges are keen but this little step adds a bump to the sharpness.

camo
 
I have thought about using chamois as well, but like you found it to be unstable.Bonding it to another substrate is a great idea. I made a DIY linen strop using thin flax linen backed by Pellon bondable fabric. The Pellon has a thin layer of hot melt glue on one side that is applied by using a hot iron. However, due to the porosity of the chamois, I am not sure how well it would work.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Natural chamois is an interesting material. It is also used to filter water out of aviation fuel. It traps the water but allows the aviation fuel to pass throught. Not sure if that has any significance but I have had no problems with using rubber glue to attach the chamois to its cotton substrate.

I needed to apply two coats of glue to the cotton substrate due to its pourosity but only one coat was required on the chamois. Then all was left for about 30 minutes before the two glued surfaces were joined together.

I haven't yet tried using the chamois strop before a shave. I just use it to clean and dry the edge after a shave. It might be interesting to see how it performs as a pre-shave strop.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
This chamois strop has sparked my interest into how it would behave as a pre-shave strop. I have two spare identical SR's lying around (not part of a M7DS).

IMG_20201122_124211.jpg
Over the next few days I will get them up to equal shaving standard and use one with clean leather stropping and alternate with the other using my new chamois strop. The results could be interesting.
 
Looks like the start of another seven day set @rbscebu!

I just use a towel to dry my razor post shave. Seems to work fine.

I do have a chamois for washing my car. It’s an interesting material. I find that it needs to be fully saturated and wrung out before it starts absorbing water. A dry chamois in my experience is not very absorbent and tends to just push water around until it’s primed. Any reason for this elaborate set up?
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
@Tomo, n@ot so "elaborate" but the reason was that I was not totally happy with cleaning my edges after a shave using a clean denim strop.

I clean and dry my SR's after each use using toilet paper but I am careful not to let the toilet paper contact the edge. While being very absorbent, toilet paper and cotton towels are made from very hard (but pliable) material. They can relatively easily slightly damage a delicate SR edge. Chamois is much kinder to a highly polished surface than a cotton towel or toilet paper. That is why most don't use toilet paper or cotton towels on their motorcycles.

The chamois is natural, not synthetic. There is very little moisture on the edge once the rest of the blade has been wiped dry. The main purpose of using the chamois strop after a shave is to remove any soap residue on the edge, not so much to dry the edge, although that happens during the chamois stropping.
 
I’d go along with that logic. I don’t use toilet paper either. It’s very absorbent but also quite rough. Basically I wouldn’t use anything on my razor that I wouldn’t use on a pair of eye glasses. I’ve always deemed soft cotton or microfibre to be ok (rightly or wrongly).
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I’d go along with that logic. I don’t use toilet paper either. It’s very absorbent but also quite rough. Basically I wouldn’t use anything on my razor that I wouldn’t use on a pair of eye glasses. I’ve always deemed soft cotton or microfibre to be ok (rightly or wrongly).
Each to their own but I consider cotton (90% cellulose) to be too hard for my edges. It may feel "soft" to the touch but that is only because it is so thin and thus pliable.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
Over the past few days I have been getting the above two identical SR's up to the same shaving quality. They got there this morning.I am now ready to try and determine if normal stropping on a clean chamois strop gives a better result than stropping on a clean leather strop.

I have marked the tail of one of these SR's with black nail polish. That will be my chamois stropped razor. The other will be for leather. For the duration of this exercise, each razor will be maintained as follows:
  • 50 laps on chamois or leather strop
  • Shave
  • Wipe dry with TP avoiding the edge
  • 6 laps on chamois strop
  • Oil and put away.
I will not be using these two SR's exclusively so expect that it will take quite a few weeks before I start seeing a difference - if any.

I will report back here if I get a result.
 

rbscebu

Girls call me Makaluod
I have now finished comparing between using a clean leather strop and a chamois strop.

Comparison:

For this comparison, I used two identical high carbon steel SR's that I had honed to give about the same standard of shave. One of these SR's was always stropped on clean leather and the other was always stropped on chamois. During the comparison, all shaves were performed as follows:
  1. SR was stropped 60 laps on clean leather or chamois as required.
  2. Prepared by washing face with bath soap and cold water.
  3. Applied Arko soap stick to face and face lathered with Chinese synthetic brush.
  4. Performed a two-pass shave, WTG and XTG plus a Fool's Pass to test the edge.
  5. SR was wiped dry with toilet paper, not touching the edge.
  6. SR was given 5 very light laps on chamois to clean the edge.
  7. Blade oiled and put away in its timber case.
A total of 10 shave with each SR was performed (20 shaves total), at a rate of one every 23 to 25 hours.

Results:

Over the course of the comparison, I noticed no discernable difference in shave quality between the leather stropped SR and the chamois stropped SR. There was initially the smallest of improvement with the chamois stropped SR but this did not last long. Either the leather stropped SR caught up or the chamois stropped SR returned to normal.

Conclusion:

Stropping on a chamois strop provides no discernable benefit over stropping on a clean leather strop.
 
I have now finished comparing between using a clean leather strop and a chamois strop.

Comparison:

For this comparison, I used two identical high carbon steel SR's that I had honed to give about the same standard of shave. One of these SR's was always stropped on clean leather and the other was always stropped on chamois. During the comparison, all shaves were performed as follows:
  1. SR was stropped 60 laps on clean leather or chamois as required.
  2. Prepared by washing face with bath soap and cold water.
  3. Applied Arko soap stick to face and face lathered with Chinese synthetic brush.
  4. Performed a two-pass shave, WTG and XTG plus a Fool's Pass to test the edge.
  5. SR was wiped dry with toilet paper, not touching the edge.
  6. SR was given 5 very light laps on chamois to clean the edge.
  7. Blade oiled and put away in its timber case.
A total of 10 shave with each SR was performed (20 shaves total), at a rate of one every 23 to 25 hours.

Results:

Over the course of the comparison, I noticed no discernable difference in shave quality between the leather stropped SR and the chamois stropped SR. There was initially the smallest of improvement with the chamois stropped SR but this did not last long. Either the leather stropped SR caught up or the chamois stropped SR returned to normal.

Conclusion:

Stropping on a chamois strop provides no discernable benefit over stropping on a clean leather strop.

Your results don't really surprise me. Chamois is a type of leather. Many types of leather have been used for stropping: steerhide, bison, horse, horse shell, kangaroo, pig skin, etc. While the draw characteristics of the leathers differ greatly, any of them can be used to produce a good edge.
 
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