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Hi, I'm sure that I'm overreacting, but I wanted to make sure first. I just got a strop and I planned on keeping it hanging on my towel rack, which is how this question came about: Will humidity do anything to my strop? You know, after a hot shower, and the strop being in the bathroom, etc.
I'm pretty sure that everyone keeps their strops in the bathroom, but I'm soooo new to this that I had to just making sure.
Thanks in advance!
I don't suppose you'd want a wet towel laying on your strop... I wouldn't. I also know how hard I pull the strop to keep it 'taught' and at those pressures your towel rack will likely be ripped off the wall.
Might want to put a wood screw into the door jam (I did... it wasn't painful), or find a stud for the screw in a good place away from wetness, or fashion a hook thingy to hang over the door that when closed gives a good support point for the strop. Many possiblities.
My first strop lived in the bathroom. This was in college, and I shared the bathroom with two other guys. My strop cupped. Once I took it out of the bathroom and got her flattened out, I had no more problems. I don't know for certain if it was the humidity that did it, but that is what I suspect.
We live in the high humidity tropics, and I keep my strops hanging in our bathroom, to boot.
The only problem that I have encountered with leather is mold. However, I've never had a
problem in that regard with my strops. That's probably because I use them every day and
I keep them clean.
Every once in awhile...like once a year...I apply a light coat of neatsfoot oil to the BACK of
the strops. The working surface gets a daily hand-rubbing and 30-50 laps with a razor.
Just don't get them actually wet, and hang them somewhere that gets a bit of air circulation.
Other than that, no problems.
You will hear both opinions, "keep it out of the humid bathroom" and "it is fine in the bathroom". As always it is YMMV. My experience is this:
Grandfather had his strop in the bathroom from about 1915-1970's when he stopped using a straight. No A/C so certainly humid! Strop was fine.
I have towel hooks mounted on the wall of my bathroom... towels don't go over the strops of course. I have never had a problem with them.
I'd say keep them in the bathroom. If you start to see a problem, move it elsewhere. :)
I keep my strop in my bedroom and strop before bed the razor I'm going to be using the next day.
I think the problem with humidity and the strop is not so much that it gets wet but that it must go through at least one and maybe more wetting and drying cycles each day. For this reason, I keep mine elsewhere.
Gentlemen:
I am not sure whether the humidity in the bathroom will contribute to a strop cupping. To be safe I keep my strops in the bedroom. Like everything else in the shave den, my stops are rotated, too. The strop of the day, then, goes to the shave den, and when finished with shaving and stropping, I hang it back on the hook in the bedroom. Why take a chance I say.
Regards,
Obie
Actually I think a bit of moisture is probably good for a strop. I know I live in single digit humidity and and the strops do begin to dry. Certainly water and leather don't mix so I'd say if the bathroom is well ventilated it's probably no issue. If there is any condensation on the strop or it feels moist I wouldn't keep it there.
Honestly these are quite helpful ideas. As a noob, I thank you all veeerrry much! I think I'll start out by not taking the risk, however, it seems like quite the experiment to try! Maybe someone will be willing to keep two strops in two different places (one being the bathroom) and two different razors to see what happens??? Ah, I guess not, heh!
Thanks again gentlemen!
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