Thread: Stropping Advice from my Barber

Some of you may have heard me refer to Frank the Italian Barber
who has been cutting my hair since the early 1970's when I was 11 years old. He's given me some equipment and priceless advice-as well as a memorable shave. Today I brought in the strop he gave me and asked him to watch me. He gave me some great tips on stropping which are probably basic to most of you but also gave me a tip I have never heard and am wondering if anybody else has heard of or done this. He told me to rub some soap from my brush on the strop and rub it in with my hands. He said to do this after applying the lather to my face. He said to do this since the strop has not been used for a long time and is drying out. Says it's better than using oil. My Avatar is from my shave with him.

Hmmmm? I imagine if the soap has Lanolin in it, It would sort of condition it a bit. I would never argue with an Italian Barber from Chi town, but soap has a drying out effect on Leather IIRC, For instance, If you use Saddle Soap to clean leather, you condition it afterwards with neetsfoot oil...I could be wrong, maybe someone else will chime in...

The only conditioning I ever do to my strops, is to rub them down with my hands from time to time. The natural oils in your hands make a great conditioner...

That's very cool that you've been with this barber for all these years.
I'm sure you can learn a lot from him...

Heard of it but I haven't done it. The best post I've seen on how it's done is here.

Edit, like I say, I haven't done this and I am not endorsing this procedure. I don't know if it is good, bad or indifferent.

Maybe he does it and he's happy with it but that doesn't mean every other old time barber would agree. Anotherwords it's just one opinion.

Im inclined to agree with Zib on this one and for the same reasons he shares. The lanolin has got to be good but the other properties of soap would lend to the drying out of the leather, unless maybe there are other oils in the soap.

I do exactly as zib. I rub my leather strop approx 50-75 times with the palm of my hand. Besides conditioning your strop, according to Lynn--who I first saw post the same advice on SRP early this year--doing so will also improve the draw of your razor on the strop.

The barber who taught me to strop advised me to do the same; i.e., take the brush and lather up the strop and then run a coffee mug down it a few times while resting flat on a table. It works great because it restores the surface leather and smooths the pores, nicks, bumps and imperfections, etc. out of the surface. The surface of the strop feels so smooth and nice after it dries. Try it!

I have done this with a couple of strops and am happy with the results. I lather up, then rub it in thoroughly with a bottle. makes the leather very supple. If you overdo it and it feels too soapy, gently wipe it down with a damp cloth, then let it dry overnight, hanging.

Goog

I had to do this with my strop because it was so stiff and slick. It did two things which my strop needed, it made it more pliable and it gave it more grab. Now if your strop is grabbing plenty, then this treatment might make it to grabby.

edit: Here is my thread about it.

Good to know this advice was not completely out of line. It's the only strop I've ever used. I did try it and there was definitely more grab on the razor after the shampoo. It also looked healthier if that makes sense-it was bone dry and a bit pale-looks like it just got a few units of blood.