Tips on how I can decrease the draw of my strop

[SavantStrike]

From my earlier thread asking how long it takes for Fromm to dry, you can see that I'm trying to reduce the draw of my SRD latigo strop. So far I have been somewhat successful, and the draw is reduced, but the action is still not nearly as smooth as I want it to be. So far I have:

1. Tried Pumice. this actually made the draw heavier

2. Tried 1000 grit sandpaper. I think this may have reduced the draw, but it may not have been fine enough? Should I have gone to an even finer grit? Every time I touched the strop after the 1k grit sanding, it was glassy smooth, but still had a bit of resistance to it. As crazy as it sounds, maybe I need to try 2k or 3k grit sandpaper.

3. Tried a generous application of Fromm strop dressing.

If I'm going to try and continue to reduce the draw of this strop, which method should I investigate. Finer sandpaper, multiple coats of strop dressing, or both?

As a side note, after all the special treatment my strop has gotten, the leather is now nice and supple. The few nicks it had are also gone now too .

 

[Neil Miller]

Are you sure you have it the right way round, Chris? You want to decrease the draw, ie make it easier to strop the razor (= less friction from the strop), right?

Firstly, latigo is already impregnated with oils from the tannery - this gives a good draw. Putting more oil on the strop will increase the draw (that is make it harder to draw the razor along the strop, = more friction).

Fromm dressing, as far as I know, increases the draw - it doesn't reduce it. RE: your earlier post, the Fromm is taking so long to dry because it isn't being absorbed much by the strop, because the strop is made of latigo and naturally oily.

To reduce the draw you need to get rid of the extra oil you have put on the strop - can be tricky! Saddlesoap might do it, though.

Regards,
Neil

 

[leighton]

Trade the latigo piece for the premium I leather.

Honestly, its the best way to do it. However, since you've modified your leather, its probably not very marketable. I do have an extra premium I leather & the webbed fabric sitting around.

 

[SavantStrike]

Trade the latigo piece for the premium I leather.

Honestly, its the best way to do it. However, since you've modified your leather, its probably not very marketable. I do have an extra premium I leather & the webbed fabric sitting around.

That wouldn't be much of a challenge though .


As for oil increasing the draw, I thought oil was supposed to decrease it.

I guess the oil must be counter productive then, but the draw has definitely decreased, which leaves only the sandpaper as the solution. I guess I will need to try some even higher grit sandpaper, or maybe I'll just wait until I can get a nice horsehide strop .

*smacks forehead*

oil...

 

[English]

You need to dry the oil out.
Wipe it with dry towel.
Now you just let it hang and air dry.
It will take time.
Now sand it with a 2000/3000 grit wet and dry sandpaper (dry).
Now roll a glass bottle over and over.
Now you will have super smooth.

Adding oil increses draw and so I hope you didn't overdo this or you might have to wait a long time.

You can also put white spirit on the leather and then dry it off with tissue paper to suck out the oil but do this carefully and wipe the white spirit over the surface and don't repeat don't soak it into the leather.

Hope this all helps and makes sense.

 

[ambrose]

You need to dry the oil out.
Wipe it with dry towel.
Now you just let it hang and air dry.
It will take time.
Now sand it with a 2000/3000 grit wet and dry sandpaper (dry).
Now roll a glass bottle over and over.
Now you will have super smooth.

Adding oil increses draw and so I hope you didn't overdo this or you might have to wait a long time.

You can also put white spirit on the leather and then dry it off with tissue paper to suck out the oil but do this carefully and wipe the white spirit over the surface and don't repeat don't soak it into the leather.

Hope this all helps and makes sense.

right on!!

 

[SavantStrike]

I will post pics another time, but the process has been successful, as well as messy and even a bit smelly .

I found I had the best success when sanding with 1k grit and then wiping the strop with a dry towel. After the dry towel worked, I tried a damp under shirt (okay it was the only thing I had handy I was willing to risk). Bingo! The shirt came up red, I was doing something. After another few wipes, it wouldn't come up with as much red dye, so I figured that meant it was time for more sanding. I sanded again and then wiped, and more red dye came up. After doing this 2 times, I moved up to 1500 grit sandpaper and repeated the process another time.

Then I tried using some VDH glycerin (I just had it handy) and a bit of extra water on the strop, and PAYDIRT! Little clouds of red lather would show up on the surface of the strop, which were then wiped up with the under shirt (cheap towel okay ). I did this twice until I got what was either going to be a great idea, or a terrible one - wet sanding!

I got the strop fairly wet, and put some VDH on it again, then I got some 1500 grit wet, and put a bit of VDH on it, and then I sanded away. Even more red dye came up. Eventually though, there was a lot less red dye, and the strop was really smooth. I decided to call it quits and wipe it down a few times and clean it up. Coincidentally, during part of this process, the leather started to smell a bit like a tannery.

After rolling a glass bottle on the strop for 10-15 minutes, I then decided to try it and see if any of my handiwork (now at least 3 hours worth) did anything, and if so, was the result good, or horrendous . The result was good. The draw is extremely smooth now, and it's a very supple piece of leather. It even has those lovely lines you see in leather that has been broken in for a long period of time (I guess we call them wrinkles, but they are smooth on this strop ).

I think I want to try it with some 2000 grit sandpaper when my local Pep boys gets more in...

 

[withoutink]

Wow, could you do this type of thing to a filly strop?