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Thread: To strop or not to strop....

  1. #76
    There are vegan strops. I don't know how good they are, though. Best to join a shave forum to ask.

    Griggs is a vegan and he shaves, but last I talked to him, he was keeping his razor in shape on .1 micron iron oxide on balsa, which makes for a super keen razor. Kremer pigments sells a big bag of it for about 10 bucks plus shipping - enough to last a decade. It makes an edge so keen for me that it shaves off every little bump on my face.

    There's tons of options that are almost as good as leather.

    If iron oxide is too keen, you could use a balsa strop with chromium oxide powder or paste once a week and palm strop every day between (there are videos of palm stropping on youtube - alex gilmore of thejapanblade.com does it on his videos - I just can't find one. All you do with a *clean and dry* palm is flatten your hand out so that your palm skin is tight and run the razor over it (drawing the edge, of course, leading edge into the palm would cause a problem).

  2. #77
    I forgot that livi palm strops (a razor maker in italy)

    Somewhere after 2:40 in this video. Livi's razors are very heavy, and this one is kamisori style. This heavy handed stropping style may not work as well on other razors, I would watch a barber instead, but the palm stropping part is informative. Slower to start, of course.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbZvnUPUD-A

    I've never had palm stropping match horse leather, but it's useful sometimes if you're too lazy to get something out. Works in the shop, too, but makes for dirty palms. It would knock the bite off of a chromium oxide edge.

  3. #78
    I've had a most difficult time with razor stropping. Naturally I blame it on someone else,specifically the barbers I heard as
    a child who made a sound like an old flat belt machine. When I strop now I think of an old story about an actor and film
    director. In my mind the actor is Jack Lemmon. Anyway the director listens to actor go through a scene then says "less,Jack,less". Jack goes through scene a couple more times and gets same comment .So Jack says "if I do any less I won't be DOING anything!". Director replies "now you've got it!" It's hard to understand how such light pressure could
    accomplish anything.
    Last edited by Mel Fulks; 09-08-2014 at 5:05 PM. Reason: Punctuation

  4. #79
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
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    Wild Wild West USA
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    Somehow they got along and I often wonder: How?
    I don't know who he is or how well made his planes are. He pares with his shoulder. I like to do that. Seems like that doesn't get mentioned here. Woh almost got off topic there . . .

    He makes planes so he should know how to sharpen and make them sing like a fine instrument. I did notice that while planing his jointer really was catching and not planing well to the end. I was seeing that in the other YouTube vid of some one using a woody jointer to take some heavy cuts.

    TO ME it looked like his blade wasn't all that great and could have sliced better instead of hacking and catching. Maybe it is a booty trap of using a jointer without a front tote and having to grip it like that. I doubt it though. I haven't used a big woody jointer like that though I really wanted one from Old Street tools until they stopped taking orders.

    Any way I do know that if I were planing that short little hunk of bubinga for the plane my LV BU jointer or my LV BU finish plane with a cambered blade and the throat way open for a heavy cut I could have planed through and not caught like that. Once one of those gets started it is pretty easy to keep 'er going and even take some steps on a long plank.

    Might be time for another Winton in running shorts vid.
    Nah . . . that would call for me to get up off the couch.

    So . . . you will just have to visualize it all in your mind's eye. I ain't lyon'.

    PS: still haven't got the spell checker back up from the bearing overhaul. Off tomorrow so maybe then.
    Sharpening is Facetating.
    Good enough is good enough
    But
    Better is Better.

  5. #80
    Yesterday I've been watching that Chinese guy on youtube again. He has a fluent planing style. And that with these akward looking Chinese planes, not heavy weights either. Catching at the end of the stroke happens to me too. It's mostly a technique think and not taking too thick of a shaving. At the end of the stroke the plane looses support under the front end and wants to dive down. You need to catch it before that happens. Thick shavings make it worse.

  6. #81
    Here's the link to the Chinese master, it even has subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwDJHJos39M

    Quote: "To plane a stock, you can't exert your force like a cow, You must swing the plane, even faster".

    It's all about momentum. Momentum depends on weight and speed. When you start a plane stroke, you can put your weight behind the plane and accelerate it. A wooden plane is lighter, so needs more speed then a heavy iron plane. Then when you stretch out, you can't push so hard anymore, and you are using the momentum to continue planing. But when the planing resistance is higher then the force you can apply, the plane will descelerate and bog down. So a good planer will stop, set a step forward and give it a new push. Walking the plane along a long board in one continual swoop is only possible when the shaving is narrow or not so deep, so you can push harder then the resistance, even when you are standing on one leg.

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