Fire Hose P:ocket/Travel Strop
Everybody travels – but not everybody has an easy-to-deal-with straight razor travel kit.
Why is that? Well – it’s because using a straight razor means having to strop it – and, for the most part, conventional razor strops do not travel well.
So – I put together a few Travel Paddle strops with horsehide stropping surfaces. And then I stitched up some of these Linen Fire Hose Travel Companion strops.
This is a seriously limited item. The only reason I can put these together is because I have a little bit of the 3” Flax Linen Fire Hose left. Making strops out of this material is way too labor intensive and it’s also extremely uncommon to find a useable 3” 100% Linen hose.
The outside is just a pocket, or sleeve, to keep the actual strop part clean. The thinner piece of hose is the strop – I fitted a 1/8” thick piece of silicone sheet inside, and sewed the ends shut. The silicone has enough mass and stiffness so you can actually strop with this right in your hand. Of course you can lie it on top of a countertop also but there’s no need really.
If you’d like to see how I use these little pocket strops – click here and FF the clip to about 4:45 seconds.
So – with the addition of this pocket strop and a travel paddle strop – the size of my shaving kit just decreased dramatically. Plus – I don’t have to worry about damaging my regular strops – which is also nice. I also make a roll-up leather strop for travel – which isn’t quite as streamlined as the paddle – but it’s definitely worth checking out if you really want a traditional hanging strop.
These are, of course, all hand made, by me, here – one at a time. They’re all the same but they’re all a little different too.
The strop is about 6.0 x 2.5” and the cases are about the same length and 3.1” wide.
