Yeah, good observation on the wearing away. I can confirm it as that old first strop, after twenty years had little to no wax on it when I abandoned it. Not for that purpose, mind you. Long sad story about that old strop though.
Chris
Vintage strop question
- Thread starter Suhrim21
- Start date
Yeah, good observation on the wearing away. I can confirm it as that old first strop, after twenty years had little to no wax on it when I abandoned it. Not for that purpose, mind you. Long sad story about that old strop though.
Chris
- Thread starter
- #22
Ok so the linen question is solved. Does anyone know why some vintage strops are super dark brown and have a rubber feel to them vs a leather feel.
I've had some vintage shell strops that had a man made feel.
Strops where made from about every kind of leather you could imagine. Pictures or maker, numbers?
My neighbor is a retired Barber. He showed me his "tool box" the other day that still had a decent looking strop in it.
The canvas was brownish, I asked again knowing the answer. You used to use a paste didn't you? Yes he said, it was brown.
I had never heard of a brown paste for sharpening - maybe Tripoli or something?
Also water stains show as brownish on linen or fire hose type material as well.
I had Koken strop that had this feel.
In the end who knows? Barbers of old tried everything to give them that "edge". They were in competition of sorts with the guy next to them.
I still remember one of my old barbers about 30 years ago telling me he hated honing. He usually did it on weekends watching the game on Sunday and it was just a distraction. The feeling was probably the same for many barbers and a shortcut would just alleviate it.
Chris
- Thread starter
- #27
A perfect example my first 700c felt almost like rubber. The new one I got is light brown and feels like leather. I also have a scotch Lassie strop that feels like rubber vs leather. I've seen scotch Lassie strops that are lighter brown and you can tell they would feel like leather. I know it's what ever the person put on the strop. I'm just unsure what it is. I'm curious. I have a small jar of dubl duck strop dressing and it looks like vasoline. And smells like bearing grease. I'm curious if the old strop dressings like that turned the leather to a rubbery feel.
Can you was the linen? Or soak in water?
What I have is between those two pictured above not real clean but not real dark like the bottom one looks like.
What I have is between those two pictured above not real clean but not real dark like the bottom one looks like.
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