Thread: have a strop question

i have a luxury of living near a saddle repair shop, so getting leather wide enough to make a decent strop for myself being a newbie and all is fairly cheap. i recently picked up 2 pieces of leather, and i believe that they have been dyed. my question is if that is the case, will the die be a problem when running a razor across them, or will it be ok.

if it feels smooth running your hand over your probably good
the dye shouldnt do much difference unless its a metall of sorts

a lot of strops are dyed do you think black and red latigo come from different breeds?
only black leather i know of is poar bear and i really dont think i could afford that strop if anyone made it

im not trying to offend it just comes natural to mee

i have a latigo 3" strop i got from vintagebladesllc and it is dyed red and is a great strop. the leather should not be hurt. if you decide to make some strops please post some pics so we all can see your handy work..

when i get a better handle on what i am doing i will definately do so, i feel that one of the pieces is a little thick for a really good strop, but for a newbie it would be perfect, knowing how badly we tear them up

I've got a number of vintage professional barber's strops. Some of them are quite thick and still do a good job. All of the old pro barber strops seem to have been 24" long x 2 1/2" wide. A lot of guys like the 3" nowadays , me included. One way or the other 24" long is nice. Plenty of stroke if you want to use it.

i myself like the strop to be atleast 3" wide, but this one piece of leather is about 1/4" thick. I worked some saddle soap into the leather to soften it a bit, i just hope it gets it
soft enough, if not, i will get some neatsfeet oil for it, and work it in from the back.

Thick leather shouldn't be a problem. Last night I bought a very thick strop made by Ambrose of B&B, supposedly very good quality, but easily twice as thick as the TM practice strop I am using right now. Barber's style again, 2.5 x 26

Originally Posted by wvloony

i myself like the strop to be atleast 3" wide, but this one piece of leather is about 1/4" thick. I worked some saddle soap into the leather to soften it a bit, i just hope it gets it
soft enough, if not, i will get some neatsfeet oil for it, and work it in from the back.

Examining some of those vintage strops I find that the two thickest are 3/16 and 5/32. Your 1/4" strop may be real good.

am i making a mistake by treating the leather with saddle soap before i use it as a strop, i am trying to get it a little bit more supple, as it is pretty stiff currently, any advice

Clean leather with Saddle Soap. Treat it and condition it with Neetsfoot oil....