Vintage Blades 3" Latigo questions

[gurana]

I asked a similar question at the end of another thread, but thought it would be better suited in the Strops section.

First, I took the blade to the strop just to see if it was flat. There seems to be some cupping, though it wasn't immediately apparent just to look at it. I tried to "rework" the strop just to get it to flatten out, but haven't put the blade back on it to see if that did anything. Is there anything else I might try to fix it?

Though I wasn't aware of this when I put in the order, it came with a 'fabric webbing' secondary strop. It is very much like the material my timbuk2 messenger bag is made of. I'm guessing that one side of that could be used for an abrasive for touchups to stretch out the time I'll have before having to get the razor honed again. Anybody have any experience with applying pastes or sprays to this material? Any recomendations?

The back side of the latigo strop seems like it might also be useful for using pastes on, though I've not seen anybody mention this... is this another possibility, or is that side simply to be avoided?

Generally speaking, after using an abrasive, does one usually move to plain fabric stroping before moving on to leather, or can you move straight to your pre-shave leather stropping? (after wiping the blade, of course)

 

[leighton]

While not everyone agrees with this, I (and some other people) think daily stropping should include a cloth component. Stropping should also be 50 laps de minimus.

Ok, answering the question. Yes, you can use it for pastes/sprays. Yes, you can also use the rough side of the latigo. But keep in mind that the rough side of the latigo you are using *is* your "hone." Do you want your hone to be rough? No, didn't think so. Well, I don't anyway. And for that reason, I recommend cotton/linen/felt for sprays/pastes. Leather is smooth, but for some reason cloth works better IMHO. YMMV. Other people will chime in on which is better, but thats not your question.

IIRC, the Vintage Blades strop is take down able. Ie, you can flip the webbing piece. Thus, you can flip to the pasted side when you need the paste, then flip it back to the unpasted side until you need to use the pasted side again. Should be weeks.

 

[gurana]

Thanks Leighton. I've witnessed some of the cloth everyday/sporadically debate. My plan is to give it a try for a week or two... my feeling is that I wouldn't save that much time of not doing it. As for pastes, I will use one side of the fabric webbing as opposed to the rough side of the latigo. Your characterization pretty much aligns with my initial impressions, so I don't see a need to go that route.

I still have reservations of using the fabric webbing. Vintage Blades sells replacement material for the secondary strop of hard pressed wool felt for like $23... I'm thinking I might go with that, but want to give the webbing a chance first.

Leighton, you've been a great help... not just to me directly, but indirectly through some of your responses to other threads. Thanks so much!

 

[leighton]

Hard pressed wool is no good for every day stropping from all accounts. And if its anything remotely similar to regular felt wool, I agree through analogy.

If vintage uses the same nylon webbing as SRD, I agree. I don't like that stuff. I don't know why, maybe because its synthetic, but I personally don't like it. Other people do. I have not personally tried to use pastes on it, I think savantstrike has tried. Maybe you could pm him about it.

If I were you, I'd see about switching it out with a cloth component from Tony (the first and still the best imho (of that design anyway)). IIRC, they use the same mounting hardware. (not going to go there)

 

[NYC-shaver]

SRD sells a cloth replacement too.

 

[TstebinsB]

What fabric is the fabric webbing? Cotton? Nylon? Polyester? A blend? It's very ambiguously named. If they make it a point to list the fabric and weave of the wool felt and cotton strops, it doesn't make much sense to me not to do it for all of them. Technically, SRD's cotton herringbone weave is webbing sewn in a herringbone weave pattern. Regardless, both are very poor substitutes for Tony's cotton strop. As such, I'm not sure that using the fabric webbing will give you a real appreciation for a 2nd strop component.

 

[gurana]

What fabric is the fabric webbing? Cotton? Nylon? Polyester? A blend? It's very ambiguously named. If they make it a point to list the fabric and weave of the wool felt and cotton strops, it doesn't make much sense to me not to do it for all of them. Technically, SRD's cotton herringbone weave is webbing sewn in a herringbone weave pattern. Regardless, both are very poor substitutes for Tony's cotton strop. As such, I'm not sure that using the fabric webbing will give you a real appreciation for a 2nd strop component.

I agree it is very ambiguous. My best guess is nylon. As I said, I wasn't even aware that it was coming with a second strop... there were no options to upgrade the material when ordered as a set, as when you order just the strop.

 

[SavantStrike]

Hard pressed wool is no good for every day stropping from all accounts. And if its anything remotely similar to regular felt wool, I agree through analogy.

If vintage uses the same nylon webbing as SRD, I agree. I don't like that stuff. I don't know why, maybe because its synthetic, but I personally don't like it. Other people do. I have not personally tried to use pastes on it, I think savantstrike has tried. Maybe you could pm him about it.

If I were you, I'd see about switching it out with a cloth component from Tony (the first and still the best imho (of that design anyway)). IIRC, they use the same mounting hardware. (not going to go there)

My ears are burning.

I've used pastes on the nylon... sort of. I used white chalk on it for daily stropping (I use white chalk on my fabric). It worked OK, and it was better than no fabric, but it was not even close to what my TM is like.

The Nylon doesn't seem to do jack squat on it's own, and with the white chalk, the chalk keeps coming out of the strop because nylon isn't very porous. When I switched to my TM strop, then I realized just how awesome fabric can be .