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- #21
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
You could always make a separate linen or firehose or seatbelt strop. I would, if I liked them enough. Firehose could be done with just a grommet in the end for hanging.
Made a New Strop and it's a BEAST! (IMHO)
- Thread starter Slash McCoy
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Now you’re talkin! I’m really thinking I may try to retrofit a fire hose into my red imp.
I make my secondaries the same way and just leave them separate.
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- #24
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Got my beeswax and neatsfoot in this morning. After one treatment it is getting nice and supple. Stropped and shaved with one of my Bismarcks and everything just felt right. Swapped ends and stropped a 1996, very pleasant strop to use. Again, it just feels right. So apparently, nothing wrong with Buffalo for a strop. The length is dead luxurious. Longest strop I have ever used. It is nice to not have to concern myself to how close I am getting to the edge of the bolster piece. I can take a nice long stroke and still never crowd the end.
If I were to ask you to make me one, how much might it cost Slash? I love your approach. I like the thought of the DIY aspect of this, but really don’t want to add a bunch of leather tools to my already sizable collection of randomly specific tools I use once every five years.
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If I were to ask you to make me one, how much might it cost Slash? I love your approach. I like the thought of the DIY aspect of this, but really don’t want to add a bunch of leather tools to my already sizable collection of randomly specific tools I use once every five years.
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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- #27
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Can't do it right now. I will PM you in a couple of weeks, if you can wait that long. Too many projects going at once, most not having anything to do with shaving stuff. Feel free to remind me in a couple weeks if you don't hear from me. Sometimes I forget to remember stuff.
If I remember....roo is thiner but stiffer than horse.... could just be the tanning method of course....and the best linen type I've found was denim type similar to Dickie's brand ....I used I sleeve of a coat I got from work. Fixed to a piece of g10..... didn't like the draw removed it tried a piece of thin foam board a'top the g10....it's simply beautiful for .25mic diamond.... without the foam just felt way to fast to hard to control pressure consistently.
Yes they are beautiful. But I am confused. I'm the guy you posted a link for the other day regarding how to made balsa/diamond strops. Tanuki is generously sending me some diamond paste and I'm buying balsa this weekend. Admittedly, you never said it, but I got the impression that the balsa strop was the final step in stropping. Is there a use for my leather strop? Further, is there a use for the unfinished backside of a leather strop?
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- #31
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
A set of pasted balsa strops does not replace the hanging leather strop. You still need to strop on leather before shaving. The pasted balsa is used after finish honing, to take it up a level. Then after each shave, the finest, .1u, strop is used to maintain the edge.
Well done!
Very cool. Next to the regular size strop your definitely says “I’m a buffalo strop”. I can appreciate the length and width but you must have some long arms to make use of it all. The ability to flip it is brilliant, my wider strops always end up looking a little abused on one side as they always get more wear at the heel end than the toe. A flip now and then would ensure good wear and make use of the full length.
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- #34
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
Thanks to you and everyone for the kind words. Actually I have normal length arms but I have always had problems with bumping the spine against the bolster pieces. When I started using the Big Daddy strop (I owned I think three of them over the few years they were available) at first I didn't have that problem but my stroke expanded to use up all the available strop length and once again I had to discipline myself to keep my stroke length down. I made several cowhide strops that were just a bit longer than the Big Daddy but used three Chicago screws instead of just two. So I had less trouble with cupping, and I was able to spread out my stroke a bit more. Many of my strops were of fold-over construction rather than bolster construction and that gave me an additional inch of usable length but in the danger zone I had hard steel chicago screws to hit instead of the leather bolster pieces. Then finally I was looking at a nice 3" strip of buffalo that was just a little too short for three strops. So I made two even longer ones. Nice. Great length for me and my wild-man stropping stroke. The other half was later made into another strop that I gifted, and another similar piece of buffalo got made into an even LONGER strop that someone requested and it was a really long strop, maybe the longest I have ever seen. But with correct hanging height and stance, it is still possible to consistently use about 90% of the available length.
And here's the thing... if you don't use it all, so what? Better to have more than you need, than to have less than what you need. Sorta like which is better... to feel stupid for carrying a gun and not needing it, or feel stupid for needing a gun and not carrying it. So I am very much favoring crazy long strops.
On width I am a bit more flexible. I am actually liking strops a bit narrower than the recently fashionable 3" width. About 2-5/8" or 2-3/4" works really nice for me. Wider than 2-1/2" but narrower than 3". The thing is, 3" wide precut leather strips are widely available, and to make a strop like really quick, you just take one of them, cut off two 7" pieces for bolsters, punch holes, assemble, and rub it down with neats foot and beeswax and instant strop. Of course it is better to treat the leather but a quick and dirty newbie strop doesn't really have to be compressed and smoothed and rubbed down with chamois made from unborn albino yak butt hide by virgin druid priestesses under the light of the first full moon after the winter solstice. So 3" strops will always be popular. For a double ender, you definitely do not want to be less than 2-1/2".
I got the idea for the double ended strop when I badly hacked up a Big Daddy, and thought maybe I could disassemble and swap ends with the leather. I wasn't using the felt so I didn't put it back in. The first ones I made were then double enders with D rings, inspired by that Big Daddy, and I never looked back.
My next strop project will probably be a couple of fire hose strops. I do not bother with using any sort of cloth component myself, but I have been asked for them and I might make a few in case I ever decide to do another flea market day. Actually last time I did that, I sold more x bay strops than my own strops. I can buy x bays cheaper than I can make my own strops, and flea market buyers are looking for rock bottom price, not quality. Nobody wants to pay $50 to $70 for a strop at a flea market, especially when they just bought a raw GD from you for $10.
And here's the thing... if you don't use it all, so what? Better to have more than you need, than to have less than what you need. Sorta like which is better... to feel stupid for carrying a gun and not needing it, or feel stupid for needing a gun and not carrying it. So I am very much favoring crazy long strops.
On width I am a bit more flexible. I am actually liking strops a bit narrower than the recently fashionable 3" width. About 2-5/8" or 2-3/4" works really nice for me. Wider than 2-1/2" but narrower than 3". The thing is, 3" wide precut leather strips are widely available, and to make a strop like really quick, you just take one of them, cut off two 7" pieces for bolsters, punch holes, assemble, and rub it down with neats foot and beeswax and instant strop. Of course it is better to treat the leather but a quick and dirty newbie strop doesn't really have to be compressed and smoothed and rubbed down with chamois made from unborn albino yak butt hide by virgin druid priestesses under the light of the first full moon after the winter solstice. So 3" strops will always be popular. For a double ender, you definitely do not want to be less than 2-1/2".
I got the idea for the double ended strop when I badly hacked up a Big Daddy, and thought maybe I could disassemble and swap ends with the leather. I wasn't using the felt so I didn't put it back in. The first ones I made were then double enders with D rings, inspired by that Big Daddy, and I never looked back.
My next strop project will probably be a couple of fire hose strops. I do not bother with using any sort of cloth component myself, but I have been asked for them and I might make a few in case I ever decide to do another flea market day. Actually last time I did that, I sold more x bay strops than my own strops. I can buy x bays cheaper than I can make my own strops, and flea market buyers are looking for rock bottom price, not quality. Nobody wants to pay $50 to $70 for a strop at a flea market, especially when they just bought a raw GD from you for $10.
I agree with you on that Slash McCoy.... I like a longer strops my last one I made was 24inch long, and I use 20 inch of it my biggest cost is the fancy Chicago screws. With the cost of shipping to the UK as I dont like the china made ones and I have not been able to find the fancy ones here yet.... but I love the veg tanned cow hide, a tiny drop of Neat's foot oil and some beeswax gives it a fantastic draw.....
I have found the more I make the better I get at making them and that leads to another big rabbit hole
I have found the more I make the better I get at making them and that leads to another big rabbit hole
- Thread starter
- #36
Slash McCoy
I freehand dog rockets
I agree with you on that Slash McCoy.... I like a longer strops my last one I made was 24inch long, and I use 20 inch of it my biggest cost is the fancy Chicago screws. With the cost of shipping to the UK as I dont like the china made ones and I have not been able to find the fancy ones here yet.... but I love the veg tanned cow hide, a tiny drop of Neat's foot oil and some beeswax gives it a fantastic draw.....
I have found the more I make the better I get at making them and that leads to another big rabbit hole
Find a saddle shop. They will hook you up with the fancy stuff, I imagine. You have horses in the UK, right?
Cow hide works just fine, for me. The jury is still out but so far I think the cowhide strop I made here seems just as good as the buffalo, maybe better, except that it is shorter.
<Edit> sorry for confusion. I pasted the wrong url in the link.
Lanolin on cowhide for me
