Thread: Strop and humidity

You don't say where you live or what your humidity is... that might matter if you're in the tropics, Seattle, or Portland. When I lived in Iowa, humidity was up to 95% in the summer and down to 15% in the winter. My strop hung in the bathroom and it was fine. The annual neatsfoot oil application is a good idea; as long as there's something like that already in the leather, I don't think humidity in the air can have much of an effect. The backside of the strop is where I'd expect most atmospheric moisture to enter, since the working side stays polished from use. With the oil concentrated there you should be fine.

Now I'm in western Colorado, and the strop still lives in the bathroom. After a shower, the humidity in there is fairly high, then between showers it falls down to our normal 15-20%. Still no trouble at all with the strop, an Illinois 127. The only special care I've taken is to hang the strop where it won't get water splashed onto it.

I live in South Florida so it is quite humid. It's about 5:30PM right now and the humidity is at 59% with a feels-like temp of 90 degrees! Imagine what the temp was at noon lol However, though surely humidity will unoticeably seep in the house, with A/C blasting at all times I think the contitions are perfect. My worries are that if I keep my strop in the bathroom, would the humidity after my showers ruin it? Apparently people have mixed opinions, and thanks to all of you, I realized that where I live can be another factor. I have decided to keep it in my room for now.

As far as oils, I've never given any thought to that. I should have done as much research on my strop as I did for my razor before purchasing it. Though I doubt classicshaving.com sells any products of low quality, after purchasing my strop I haven't seen many reviews about Mountain Mike strops. I must admit that the strop looks pretty high quality. I guess only time can tell.

So, here's my plan based on the HUGE amount of information I've read: keeping it in my room and stropping about 40 laps before every shave on leather only. When I feel that my razor is not as great as it was, but still "decent" enough to shave, then I'll start doing canvas and leather (about 25 canvas/40 leather). After that (hopefully after months) I'll try the 12k hone.

Please feel free to let me know if this sounds like a good plan. I know some of it is trial and error, but I'd like to filter out those ERRORS! Also, as far as I'm concerned, canvas needs paste. Suggestions there are very much appreciated also...

If you want, paste one side of the canvas and not the other, that's what I do. When the edge needs a little something extra, I unscrew the screws, spin the canvas around to where the CrOx paste is and give it a few laps, then flip the canvas back around. I live in tennessee and humidity isn't as bad as Florida, but still gets pretty humid, however most of us have air conditioners and it only really gets humid while your taking the shower, so I just keep it in the bathroom but away from the actual shower so no water gets on it. Also, Most, not everyone, but most people recommend doing 25 on linen and 50 on leather, or some other portion of that, but most recommend at least doing a few passes on the linen and then going to the leather. However as always, YMMV