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Do hanging strops have to hang?

Legion

Staff member
I have a Latigo strop that is on the stiffer side. This works grate on heavier razors, but for thinner ground lighter razors i do not like this particular strop. It is difficult to get the razor to conform to the strop without applying to much pressure. For lighter razors i prefer to use leather that is more supple and maybe a little thinner.
Stropping does have many variable to consider. Someone stropping a wedge might get away with something that might not work as well with a extra hollow ground light razor. The weight of the razor pressure will not work if you strop a feather light razor on a "stiff" wide leather strop.
I am still looking for a strop that is a good allrounder. The Kanayama strops is a good candidate, but to expensive where i live at the moment.
Yes, this is what I found as well.

On average, I found thin leather more adaptable to different razors than thick, especially if the leather was not perfectly flat, which leather very rarely is.
 
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Do you prefer to use the strop in horizontal orientation, with both ends at same hight (like when attaching it to a door knob) or rather vertically (strop attached at eye level hanging down).
If you have a preference, could you explain why? I believe I have better control when stopping vertically (with some mount of inclination probably 60°)
 
Some people talk about creating a microconvexity, I don't know anything about that. But from a practical standpoint a hanging strop helps regulate your pressure.
In my opinion you actually can get some adhesive wear and plastic flow at the edge when you strop on a hanging strop.
This in turn can cause some micro convexity at the edge. This affect will be less if you only kiss the surface with the weight of the blade on eg. a paddle strop. This will have a beneficial effect on the edge.
The image below is from one of my dovo razors, which were honed on a jnat. The image is taken after 5 shaves. The blade was then dried and stropped on clean leather (i did not count).
In this case there is really not that much rounding at the apex from the hanging strop. Some of the convexity might also be caused by the jnat slurry, because i did not dilute to clear water during the finishing.
I only use enough tension in the strop and apply enough torque on the blade to get even contact with the bevel and the spine on the strop.
The small scratches going perpendicular to the edge is from the strop.


Dovo Post pro2.jpg
 
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