Home Made Cloth Strops?

[seanusa]

Any one know what's good to use for this? I have a bunch of old cotton duck and denim pants that I am trying to find a use for, can this material be used?

 

[BDF]

Denim seems to work well but the outside works a lot better than the inside. I have a strop that came with a felt prep component that I just could not warm up to. My wife cut the leg out of an old pair of jeans, sewed it into a tube and I attached it to the stop using the felt as a stiffener. I pasted one side with .1 micron CBN but have not found it nearly as effective as the same compound on hard balsa. But the denim seems to work fine as a prep side before using the leather; it is fast but has a much better feel than the felt did, at least to me.

I don't think denim would work nearly as well without the felt inside it though; I think the edges would curl and the material would wrap around the razor's edge too much. The felt gives the denim a much better backing and prevents it from folding around the razor.

I really think any twill fabric would work though. Stropping seems like more folklore and 'hocus pocus' than factual anyway and there is nothing beyond opinions that I have been able to find. So my opinion is that denim works fine for a prep strop but I have absolutely nothing to base that on other than I like it better than felt and it hasn't knocked the edge off any of my razors..... yet.

Brian

Any one know what's good to use for this? I have a bunch of old cotton duck and denim pants that I am trying to find a use for, can this material be used?

 

[jeff_C]

"Stropping seems like more folklore and 'hocus pocus' than factual anyway".... yes... this! LOL