Homemade dryer/practice strop

[PolsBirthday]

Hello all,
I know many people strop after their shaves to ensure that the razor is perfectly dry before putting it away, and I was thinking of, instead of putting my beautiful new Tony Miller in any danger from the moisture, I would fashion myself a sort of drying strop out of something. This will double in effectiveness, as I am starting a friend on straights, and would like something for him to practice his stropping technique on that won't necessarily harm the razor while he practices (or maybe even do a little good?).

I have an old suede overcoat that has some good intact areas on it, and the pile would help dry the blade quicker methinks, but would another type of leather work better?

any tips would be great

 

[Leche]

I doubt it would matter. Why does it have to be leather though? I strop on a towel afterward. What about a cloth belt, like a martial arts belt.

 

[PolsBirthday]

I figure leather would be more gentle to the razor that even cotton, and plus, my towels are all very fibrous, or have lots of weird stitching involving dips and peaks and such...... plus i figured leather might do better against tensile stretching?

 

[leighton]

I chuckled a little bit about the "being gentle to the razor" comment. I use linen on my razors, and sometimes linen impregnated with crox. Steel can take a lot of punishment before it shows signs of wear.

Long story short. Cotton anything should be perfectly fine for the razor as long as you don't cut into it. I agree about the cloth belt. It would be pretty thin, relatively cheap, pretty absorbent. Better than a towel due to the width.

Personally, I just use my linen/webbed fabric side.

 

[PolsBirthday]

Well, here is the fruit of my recent labor, I tried to model the design after a col.conk I saw earlier so that I could have nice tension with only a single handle. One side is a slick cotton muslin, and the other, shorter one, is a thick woven cotton called "monk's cloth", which is generally used for huck-weaving. I figured this would have a nice draw and take away more moisture than the slick side. The bindings are linen.

Since I had the fabric already, it cost me all of about 3 dollars to make +an hour and a half's work, it should suit my earlier stated purposes quite well, and who knows? maybe even ACTUALLY strop the blade a little!

whaddaya think folks?

 

[Luc]

I read somewhere that a razor shouldn't be stropped post-shaving as the edge might be damaged and have micro-dents. Is there such a thing?

I usually dry my razor with a towel but if stropping is better, I might do it.

 

[PolsBirthday]

I read somewhere that a razor shouldn't be stropped post-shaving as the edge might be damaged and have micro-dents. Is there such a thing?

I usually dry my razor with a towel but if stropping is better, I might do it.

I think the theory behind that is that some of the blade's edge will have oxidized, while other areas have not, and thus, by stropping you remove the rust and even out a the playing field for the entire edge (wearing the areas that rusted down quicker and causing micro-dents)

I apply this knowledge more to the "don't use a razor twice in a row" rule rather than this situation. I figure its not going to rust a huge amount during my 10-20min shave, and the stropping will help get rid of the moisture for the hours afterwards, it works for me.

btw, I usually dry my razor on a towel, but don't like to touch the edge with it, so I figured a post-strop was in order.