Thread: Help Cleaning a Leather Strop

Hi All

My name is Blake and I am new to the world of straight razor shaving. This site is unbelievable; many thanks to all who've been available to help me!

I seemed to have applied too much shaving paste to my strop, and it has turned black and rather 'gunky'. What is the best way to clean this off? I realize that I will need a new strop for my day-to-day needs.

The paste in question is called Theirs Issard Strop Paste Stick and was purchased from the art of shaving.

If it was mine I would take the dull edge of a butter knife and holding it at an angle of maybe 60 degrees try scraping the most caked on paste off..... without gouging the leather. There are some barber manuals that instruct on how to condition a strop by washing it with lather. I've never done this myself but here is a thread where you can read the opinions of guys that have tried it. Some like it, some don't. I'm sure other members who've had some experience with stuff like this will give you more to go with.

Your not going to use a strop with ti paste on it as your daily strop. Their paste has abrasives in it to keep your edge keen. Its around 10k grit. You'll want to get a clean leather strop for daily use.

If the layer of paste left after the butter knife is still too much, you should be able to rub a lot away with a rag or paper towel.

blake123,

Did you follow the instructions/advice given when you first asked the question here:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...need-help.html

Paste(pun intended) your results to the original thread, if so.

Regards

I would scrape it, rub vigorously with a rag and if ultimately necessary you could sand with very fine grit sand paper. If you sand it rub with a clean rag again to remove any grit. Also using the search type cleaning strop and you may find a few threads about cleaning up strops

I would first try to rub it out with your hand.

The grit in the paste embeds in the strop. The only way to remove it is to remove leather from the strop.

I'd save that one and use it as a paste strop, and then get a new strop.

Funny. I actually did the exact same thing and ended up buying another strop and using the other as a pasted strop. Instead of following my own advice. However, if you are going to use it as a pasted strop, you can't lose by trying to sand it first.

If I wasn't going to buy a new strop (and keep the over-pasted one pasted) believe I would do the gentle scrape thingie then saddlesoap the snot out of that puppy with a soft brush - raise good lather, wipe it down and do it again. But that is only a wild guess from a guy who knows a lot about lather, leather and not so much about that strop paste.