I do realize that this is a bit like asking “what’s the best razor?”, but what strop should I start with for my imminent Moarteen Koraat?

All I know about strops is they come in leather, cotton, probably some other materials… and I seem to remember hearing denim works fine.

I’m in the USA, but buying from overseas isn’t out of the question.

Thanks!

  • PorkButtsNTaters666
    3·
    3 days ago

    I would look for 2 things

    • width: you want to get a strop that is large enough to fit the whole edge (8 cm/3 inches should do it)
    • you probably want a leather plus linen strop, and not only leather

    I have a Duke City strop, and it’s perfectly serviceable

    • waldenOPMA
      3·
      2 days ago

      That’s two votes for Duke City. Sounds like a winner.

      • djundjilaA
        2·
        3 days ago

        asking the real questions!

        No, we do not. A lemming with a razor is a tricky prompt. Do you have a good idea?

          • djundjilaA
            3·
            3 days ago

            That, or we need to attract some creative types to the community🙂

        • PorkButtsNTaters666
          3·
          3 days ago

          I thought of the lemmy logo with some lather, but I didn’t find a quick free service where you can upload a picture to modify it. In the Bing Image Creator, the following was the best I could manage:

          But that does’t look like the lemmy logo:

            • djundjilaA
              3·
              3 days ago

              Bing’s insistence on combining shaving-related prompts with beards is puzzling 😅

  • gcgallant
    3·
    3 days ago

    The best deal going, I think, is Duke City Strops on eBay. I’ve had a couple of them, but keep giving them away to people starting out.

    • waldenOPMA
      3·
      2 days ago

      That’s two votes for Duke City. Sounds like a winner.

      • gcgallant
        3·
        2 days ago

        Let me know if you have questions about stropping when it arrives.

        • waldenOPMA
          2·
          2 days ago

          Thanks. I’m a visual learner so I’ll turn to YouTube when the time comes.

  • djundjilaA
    2·
    3 days ago

    On a more serious note, If you have not yet used a strop and straight for a significant amount of time, don’t get a nice strop. You will nick it. Your first strop should be cheap enough that you don’t mind if it gets ruined before you get good at stropping.

    This is not to say that stropping is difficult in any way. It’s not. It’s just that you’re doing a very repetitive action daily. That’s boring and you’ll automatically try to do it fast, and every little slip-up makes a nick that goes click twice with every lap from now on. You can try to carefully trim flapping pieces of leather from the nick and sand in smooth, but in never really goes back to a fully smooth draw.

    I was impatient and got myself a really nice strop after a month or two of using straights, and I regretted it.

    So my recommendation is not to treat this like a starter razor where it makes sense to choose something good that lives long.