Mountain Mike - Top Quality Leather Strops
Top Quality Leather Strops For Cut Throat Razors - Handmade By Mountain Mike in USA
Mountain Mike Strops are amazing quality. His handmade strops for stropping cut throat razors are made at his base in the mountains at Mile-Hi, Idyllwild, California, USA.
Each high quality latigo leather strop is made by the man himself using traditional methods. Latigo leather is a leather that has been specially treated with waxes and oils to aid the stropping process by slowing down the blade action on the strop. Additionally the wax and oil helps the strop maintain its shape and durability.
Cut throat razors by Dovo, Thiers-Issard and Revisor are shave ready when they leave the workshop but they will all benefit from stropping before use. This is due to the cutting edge of the razor which is called the fin, bending over ever so slightly in storage. Stropping is required to put the fin back in place prior to shaving.
Dovo Cut Throat Razors, Thiers Issard Cut Throat Razors and Revisor Cut Throat Razors are not inexpensive items to buy so it makes sense to look after them. They should not need honed for at least 9-months after purchase providing you strop properly.
There are dozens of good videos on YouTube that take the novice on a step-by-step guide on how to learn this vital skill.
My advice is to go for a strop that's at least 2 inches (2.5 cms) wide and 17 inches long so you can more or less cover the fin on the width of the strop and get a good sweep with the razor on the strop.
I have seen strops that have been made in China for only £6.00 each, avoid them at all costs, frankly they are rubbish quality.
The purpose of stropping between shaves is to remove the microscopic burrs that form on the fin after you shave, most experienced cut throat users will strop their razor after around 6-9 shaves depending on the quality of their razor, their beard growth and how good their stropping technique is.
Executive Shaving stocks the following brands of strops: Mountain Mike Strops, Timor of Germany, Dovo of Germany, Dr Dittmar of Germany, Thiers-Issard of France, and our own Executive Shaving Own Brand (made in India).
Dovo of Solingen, Germany has just released a new strop paste which conditions the leather, keeping it from splitting and cracking, we recommend you buy this strop paste and use it frequently.
To view our complete range of leather strops and strop pastes and balms click here.
Written by Brian Mulreany,
Sales Director at The Executive Shaving Company.
Telephone: 0141 880 3040
Email: brian@executive-shaving.co.uk