Do Different Leather Strops Produce Different Shaving Results?

[rbscebu]

I have just a few different leather strops. They are all of about the same width of 60mm to 70mm. All my stropping is on clean leather.

Each strop feel different when being used. So far, I have noticed no difference in my shaving results between using different leather strops. Is this normal or am I missing something?

 

[lasta]

Wow this is digging deep!

I remember having a sort of leather strop fetish 9 years ago. Moving around a lot since then, and now all I have is a cheap Chinese one. No difference between that and stropping on bed linens to be honest.

 

[Tony Miller]

I feel the end result is the same but the feel to the user is what varies. Some strops may take more passes, some less due to the amount of friction and the resulting "efficiency".

I think most people try and use different strops for the feedback they provide. heavy draws may feel better with heavy weight razors, fast strops may feel better with featherweight full hollows and some just like a slick feel, or a velvety feel or something different.

Just like most other tools used in the process, sometimes we just feel like something new or different even though they may not do anything different or actually add to the experience. If a brush or lather bowl works why do we need more than one? You may get different results from different razors but once you have a (insert favorite grind here) why do you "need" five more of similar grind?

 

[BDF]

I think the leather type makes a difference. My own preference is for horse butt (the hide, not shell) as well as horse shell from Kanoyama. The harder leather of a horse is very fast and is effective on a razor in very few laps. I believe that leather yields the best edge. Kanoyama shell also yields a excellent edge, is fast although not as fast as shiny horse butt (then again, Formica is not quite as fast as hard, shiny horse butt IMO) but is buttery smooth and luxurious in use.

An even bigger difference for me is the pre- strop strop material, and I find there are two kinds: linen and [not linen]. Linen works well, is a pleasure to use (and my wife says my stropping on linen is soothing to her, go figure), and very effective IME. Cotton, felt, and nylon are.... not.

I have not tried Horween cordovan shell yet because am wary of not liking it or not finding it better than anything else and it is expensive. But I am interested....

 

[steveclarkus]

My favorite strop was made by Christian & Son in NSW and is 70+ Years old now. It has a strip of horse hide and a strip of horse shell as the “finisher”. I’ve put it up for a while since it is a bit of a treasure. I had the local cobbler make a strop for me and I can’t really tell any difference in my edges. The draw is about the same as the NSW strop and there is no linen since I don’t put anything between the balsa and the leather. I did experiment with linen but it deteriorated the balsa edge. I expect the biggest differences in strops is the feel of the draw rather than the edge. I primarily shave with 4/8 and 9/16 very hollow razors and prefer a medium draw with light strokes.

 

[RayClem]

I do not know if it makes any difference to the edge of the straight razor, but using different strops make ME feel better. In a single stropping session I will often use three different types of fabric strops and three different types of leather strops. I will do about 20 laps on each strop for a total of 120 laps. With the leather strops, I typically start off with latigo leather, progress to fast bridle leather and then finish up using either Chromexcel horsehide or shell cordovan. Shell cordovan is often thought to produce a superior edge, but I think the main difference between various leathers is differences in draw, which likely affects the stopping experience more than edge quality.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I think draw is highly personal but I bet it makes a difference in the following way: if the draw of the strop helps you maximize your stropping technique, then the material definitely matters.

I've had slow and fast strops and I don't even know which I prefer.

 

[Tony Miller]

Interesting that there are at least a few people out there who like the shiny, super fast and hard horse butt. In the past many have not liked that slick of a material but it seems there may be a few at least who do. I have started experimenting with the hard rolled stuff to see just how it will perform.

I think the leather type makes a difference. My own preference is for horse butt (the hide, not shell) as well as horse shell from Kanoyama. The harder leather of a horse is very fast and is effective on a razor in very few laps. I believe that leather yields the best edge. Kanoyama shell also yields a excellent edge, is fast although not as fast as shiny horse butt (then again, Formica is not quite as fast as hard, shiny horse butt IMO) but is buttery smooth and luxurious in use.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

I've sometimes wondered about stropping on the flesh side of my veg tanned cowhide. But always been afraid to try.

 

[Legion]

I favour veg tanned kangaroo. I like it because of the draw, but also the thinness, and suppleness of the leather allows it to conform to the geometry of the razor really well.

Other thin leathers like calf, pig or goat would do that as well, but they don't have the tensile strength of kangaroo, so there would be issues created by the leather stretching.

 

[rbscebu]

I have a 62mm wide calf-hide strop from Kyrgyzstan that is relatively thin, supple and with a medium to fast draw. It makes for a great travel strop and fits nicely in my dop bag. The strop has stretched a bit with use, by about 5% in length. This presents no issues.

Once I have finished making my travel balsa strop I'll post a pic of my SR dop bag and all that I carry in it.

 

[RayClem]

Interesting that there are at least a few people out there who like the shiny, super fast and hard horse butt. In the past many have not liked that slick of a material but it seems there may be a few at least who do. I have started experimenting with the hard rolled stuff to see just how it will perform.

I have two horsehide strops and one shell cordovan strop. I love using them, but I am not sure I would want to do an entire stropping session on either of them. That is why I also use latigo and cowhide strops as well. My shell cordovan strop is not nearly as hard as my Chromexcel horsidehide strops.

 

[PintoPlain]

I favour veg tanned kangaroo. I like it because of the draw, but also the thinness, and suppleness of the leather allows it to conform to the geometry of the razor really well.

Other thin leathers like calf, pig or goat would do that as well, but they don't have the tensile strength of kangaroo, so there would be issues created by the leather stretching.

The only strop I use now is my roo. I would like to try others, but the roo just works. I really like the draw on it.

My first strop was a cheap Chinese strop and it worked, but it was too short and slick for my liking. I have tried a cowhide strop, but I prefer the roo.

 

[Tony Miller]

I favour veg tanned kangaroo. I like it because of the draw, but also the thinness, and suppleness of the leather allows it to conform to the geometry of the razor really well.

Other thin leathers like calf, pig or goat would do that as well, but they don't have the tensile strength of kangaroo, so there would be issues created by the leather stretching.

I had one really thin hide here and it was nice stuff. I wish I could have found some a bit thicker but this was like thick copy paper. Had a nice feel and zero stretch.

 

[Tony Miller]

I have two horsehide strops and one shell cordovan strop. I love using them, but I am not sure I would want to do an entire stropping session on either of them. That is why I also use latigo and cowhide strops as well. My shell cordovan strop is not nearly as hard as my Chromexcel horsidehide strops.

The Cordovan usually feels softer than the Chromexcel but even they are really soft compared to most of Horweens veg tan, especially if it is the hard rolled stuff. that is like Masonite

 

[Tony Miller]

I've sometimes wondered about stropping on the flesh side of my veg tanned cowhide. But always been afraid to try.

It would work fine and the fibers give a nice draw as they sort of cling to the steel and slow things down. I have used the flesh side of both steerhide and horsehide with good results.

The Illinois #827 is actually the flesh side of the hide rather than the skin side.

 

[rbscebu]

From the replies so far, it looks as though almost no one notices any difference in their resultant shave based on the leather strop used.

Feel while stropping is of course a different matter. That was to be expected.

 

[mattps1]

Since getting a Tony Miller Rough Out horsehide strop, I could swear i'm getting better stropping results compared to other Ezra Arthur horse-hide and english bridle variants. Maybe it's the improved auditable feedback which lets me know if the strop pass was making the best contact on the edge

 

[BDF]

Well, even 'almost no one' allows that he may well be wrong. Also, Tony Miller's thought that all strops work about the same but some may do more work in fewer passes could have merit; I freely admit that lots and lots of laps are not commonplace around here. 15 laps are common and a max. of maybe 30 laps is the most used. Certainly there are many people using far more laps every time and so that may provide a similar or the same stropping results on what may be slower leathers (speaking of effect on the razor here, not the speed of the razor on the strop).

From the replies so far, it looks as though almost no one notices any difference in their resultant shave based on the leather strop used.

Feel while stropping is of course a different matter. That was to be expected.

 

[swellcat]

I've sometimes wondered about stropping on the flesh side of my veg tanned cowhide. But always been afraid to try.

Could you do it . . . for science?