Thread: How to treat SRD strop?

Hi there,

I ordered the StraightRazorDesigns 3" Premium Horsehide Strop, with matched webbing for the backing.
It hasn't arrived yet, but I have a few questions as I'm very new to straight razor shaving:
Do I need to, or is it preferable to, treat the cloth or the leather surfaces with anything? I can easily get some neatsfoot oil from the local saddle place.
This will be my everday strop. When and how often should I use the fabric side? How does the fabric compare to the older canvas type fabric?
How many strokes is usually suitable?
If I just use the leather side before shaving most days, then every few shaves use the fabric side, should I get some chromium oxide spray for the fabric perhaps? Or do I just strop on the fabric dry and untreated as it comes?
I've read the beginners guides on here, and got some useful tips, but I don't know about this webbing fabric used on the SRD strop.

Thank you,
Sam.

Consider the webbing to be completely interchangeable with canvas or linen for anything you read about strops. For your daily use strop, you should not apply paste to the fabric. This is because use of a pasted strop should be limited to touching up your razor when its shave quality is diminished, whereas both the fabric and leather strops are to be used before each shave.

I highly recommend contacting Don or Lynn directly. They are truly great to work with and would be more than happy to answer your questions...

Great strop you've got coming. I think the palm of the hand rubbed a couple of dozen times before stropping would be all the treatment I would use on the horsehide. The natural oils treating the surface. Neatsfoot is alright if you want more draw but remember, a little goes a really long way. For the fabric, as Utopian said, I leave my daily driver untreated. Any paste, spray or chrom-ox is applied to surfaces reserved for the once in awhile that I use those sharpening aids.

The horsehide, like all new horsehides, starts off a little slick in the draw department. I usually do around 3 light neatsfoot applications rubbed in really well with letting each application sit over night and then daily palm rubbing for a few days before the next application. After this continued daily palm rubbing will speed up the process, but it does take a little while for the horsehide to develop any real draw. The results however are very nice from the start and just get better as it breaks in.

Have fun,

Lynn

Thank you all for your help, especially Lynn!