Not sure what you guys'll make of this but today's saturday afternoon project was to make my own canvas strop. It turned out pretty well, except I just shipped my new razor off so I don't have anything to try on except an unhoned junker.
Here's a little photo spread to show my process. Let me know any way you may see to improve this....
I started at my local fabric store (Farbic Land in this case) and pestered the poor salesgirl 'till she took me to some 10.5 oz twill cotton canvas.. Looked right, felt right... BWTHDIK?.... got a meter at $13 and some heat activated glue stuff in a sheet for $6
I took apart my vintage Barber's Special "Scorcher" and used it as a guide to cut my canvas a little longer and about 5x the width (for extra). I carefully folded the canvas to just a tiny bit smaller in width, and again, carefully, ironed a crease into it
I proceeded to do this again and again until I had 4 layers. I left a little slack by keeping succeeding layer "loose" in the inside corner to give it a little room to bend to keep it from bulking up. Then I did it a fifth time, just to get a mark to trim to.
I unfolded it after it cooled and used a straight edge to trim my fifth crease just a little inside the roll of the crease. Then I unfolded the whole thing and re-folded it so the cut edges were folded inside leaving just the one edge with two creases and the other edge with just one crease.
I trimmed a piece of that fabric glue to fit with a little extra and used to iron to set it in place on one side. Then I trimmed it very carefully and ironed it down onto the other side. Let it cool and PRESTO instant canvas strop. I punched a hole in it and remounted it with my old leather strop and, boy it looks pretty sweet. It has no handle yet but the extra length seems to substitute well. Suggestions?
Does it work? I have no idea! It seemed to work on my unhoned junker/practice blade but by every means it sure seemed pretty good (note my extreme noobness) It seemed to be very smooth, with no strange wobbles or bumps, no extra thickness and made a neat "whisking" sound.
I think it will work, but I've never even seen with my own eyes a linen strop let alone even used one .... yet.... Total investment: about 1 hour and $19.00, and I have enough for 5 or 6 more attempts if this one fails. BTW are linen strops sewn or stitched along their length? How many layers thick are they, assuming it's more than one
If any one could point me to some detailed photos of a linen strop I'd sure appreciate it.
BTW in the spirit of PIF if there are a couple of newbies in need of an economical (read: free) canvas strop and don't mind being a guinea pig, I'd be glad to make one and send it to you for the cost of postage.
Here's a little photo spread to show my process. Let me know any way you may see to improve this....
I started at my local fabric store (Farbic Land in this case) and pestered the poor salesgirl 'till she took me to some 10.5 oz twill cotton canvas.. Looked right, felt right... BWTHDIK?.... got a meter at $13 and some heat activated glue stuff in a sheet for $6
I took apart my vintage Barber's Special "Scorcher" and used it as a guide to cut my canvas a little longer and about 5x the width (for extra). I carefully folded the canvas to just a tiny bit smaller in width, and again, carefully, ironed a crease into it
I proceeded to do this again and again until I had 4 layers. I left a little slack by keeping succeeding layer "loose" in the inside corner to give it a little room to bend to keep it from bulking up. Then I did it a fifth time, just to get a mark to trim to.
I unfolded it after it cooled and used a straight edge to trim my fifth crease just a little inside the roll of the crease. Then I unfolded the whole thing and re-folded it so the cut edges were folded inside leaving just the one edge with two creases and the other edge with just one crease.
I trimmed a piece of that fabric glue to fit with a little extra and used to iron to set it in place on one side. Then I trimmed it very carefully and ironed it down onto the other side. Let it cool and PRESTO instant canvas strop. I punched a hole in it and remounted it with my old leather strop and, boy it looks pretty sweet. It has no handle yet but the extra length seems to substitute well. Suggestions?
Does it work? I have no idea! It seemed to work on my unhoned junker/practice blade but by every means it sure seemed pretty good (note my extreme noobness) It seemed to be very smooth, with no strange wobbles or bumps, no extra thickness and made a neat "whisking" sound.
I think it will work, but I've never even seen with my own eyes a linen strop let alone even used one .... yet.... Total investment: about 1 hour and $19.00, and I have enough for 5 or 6 more attempts if this one fails. BTW are linen strops sewn or stitched along their length? How many layers thick are they, assuming it's more than one
If any one could point me to some detailed photos of a linen strop I'd sure appreciate it.BTW in the spirit of PIF if there are a couple of newbies in need of an economical (read: free) canvas strop and don't mind being a guinea pig, I'd be glad to make one and send it to you for the cost of postage.
001_tongu just kidding, my pommy mates.)
