Hey there guys. Welcome back. Ricky here. Yes, I did just get out of bed.
Yes, I did not do my hair, and yes, I am wearing the clothes that I slept in
It's one of those morning's where I didn't feel like coming out and doing any sort of videos
But I just got something that I just need to talk about and a lot of you guys have been asking me about
My strops and asked me about the different materials, so I figured come out and put together
a ten minute video explaining what the different materials are and
What I have got in the box that I am so excited about
So here are the leathers that I have. I have latigo, which is your cowhide and
Latigo is great for just people who are getting into stropping
And they're not really sure if you want to use compounds or not without compounds latigo still will work great
It's just a little bit slower and with
Compounds you can just really load them up with any compound level you want you go from two thousand three thousand grit
All the way up to you know a hundred thousand grits if you want to
The only thing with that latigo is it tends to absorb a lot of the compounds
So you just have to be aware that it does absorb more compound over time
And it's not very easy to clean. Your Buffalo is a very glossy version of the Latigo
It does have a slightly higher concentration of silicate so it's really good for people who don't want to use compounds
But also for those who want to use compounds the Buffalo is really easy to clean
the raw Buffalo is a dense dense version of the Buffalo, and the raw Buffalo is essentially the same as the
Buffalo in terms of its silicate concentration it doesn't have the higher gloss finish that the
Buffalo has but because it is really dense is really great for people who like to set micro bevles on their knives and strop their
Knives afterwards the last two are the Equines so you have the Equine non shell cordovan
And then the equine shell cordovan the equine non shell Cordovan is really just a
Slightly matte version of the shell cordovan the equine non
Shell cordovan has the highest concentration of silicate of all the others out there and its really great to use with or without
compounds and for those who just want the extra gloss the extra you know mirror finish on their knives or your straight razors you would
Go to your shell cordovan
That's got the highest concentration of silicate and because it has that special membrane doesn't pulled off from the actual height
So it gives it a mirror of polish that you're looking at a number of my subscribers who actually are
They would consider themselves masters when it comes to straight razor shaving
They said back in the 50s and the 60s and maybe even before that a lot of the barbers out there will actually have
Two skins that she would have a shell cordovan skin hide or strop sitting in the shop
And then they'll have a equine you know so now non shell cordovan strop in the shop as well
barbers back in the old days
They actually never used compounds they went straight from
The rough side of the equine to the smooth side then to the shell cordovan so that was a really interesting fact that I heard
from one of my subscribers
If you actually are rubbing the back side of the Equine versus the Buffalo and the latigo the equine is definitely much rougher
I'm thinking at least two to three times more
Coarse it feels really interesting. It does have a grain. It feels a lot like a cat's tongue or
Even shark skin if you guys have ever touched a shark skin. It feels like that so it's like a one a unidirectional
sandpaper if that makes any sense so
very interesting stuff
I'm actually gonna start making my strops with the equine today one of the last things that I really like about equine
strops is that the leather the consistency of the leather it's much more even throughout the
Entire hide when you buy a hide
you know whether it's three or four feet or three or four square foot of the buffalo or the latigo you're gonna have splotches or
Areas that are not quite perfect the equine leathers tend to have a much smoother consistency from edge to edge
so
There's a lot less waste that goes on them and also if you were looking for that perfect piece of leather
You're more likely to find a perfect piece of leather on the equine than you are on a buffalo or a latigo
But that's mostly cosmetics. That's really not a performance issue at all again
If you're looking to load your strops
And you and your beginner
Go over the latigo
Don't buy any of the more expensive stuff unless you really know what you want
and you really know what you're doing and also if you were buying a
You know compound that only has a grit rating of three to four thousand
I would say bypass it altogether and just pick up a good strop. All of these strops here have enough silicate in them that they
Will actually clean your knife's edge fairly well after a stropping session, and so you don't really need compound
That's just my opinion though. You can certainly go buy
You know compounds that you like. So currently I'm actually testing two compounds for now these are both Herold's
This is the Herold's green which is about four to six thousand grit
And this is the Herold's red from six to eight thousand grit. I really like these
I like the way the green feels better
It actually stays moist longer than the red, but the red once you actually get it warmed up
And it's actually moving, the polish that you get on the red is really nice. The green overall is a great starting compound
it's a compound that you can probably finish most of your knives on and
It's something that actually works fairly fast as well, and so I'll leave a link in the video description for this compound
These are the new blocks that I made
they are a two and a half by ten inch block and it seems to be a really perfect sized block for those who are
sharpening chef's knives and for those who actually like to sharpen sushi knives or those who have longer knives longer than 300 millimeters
consider a strop that is
16 inch long this is what I made. I'm always making stuff for myself guys
Okay, whenever I sharpen things or whenever I'm in the shop
And I'm doing something that I feel like "hey there isn't anything out there that can really
Kind of satisfy my needs in terms of you know how to sharpen my knives better". One-and-a-half inches by 16 inches long
They are really great for sushi knives. They're really great for the yanagibas and sujihikis and all that good stuff
I'm enjoying them. I'll do a full session for you guys, and show you how to use these so anyways guys
I will leave the link in the video description to all these strops here
I have enough materials to make about 20 strops for the equine and I have about
Two dozen or so of the shell cordovan strops left if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments
I do read every one of them, or if you leave a question on my Etsy store
I will also answer any questions that you asked them there alright guys. Well. Thank you so much for being here today
I will catch you in the next video