Found Valet Autostrop in Grandpa's box

[MikeT]

Hello gents,
I found a Valet Autostrop in a box that was my Grandpa's. He was a colonel in the army and was always clean shaven and neat. Well some of my first memories were of him shaving and I remember being in awe of the gadgetry involved with simply removing hair from ones face..
Looks in good condition, though I know little of safety razors. I think I'll be getting into them now with this one.
So, the strop is bent from being wrapped up for decades.
How do I condition the leather? Any good products for these strops so that the leather does not crack?
Thanks in advance for suggestions!
M

[RezDog]

nothing quite a special as heirloom gear. The strop is likely dry and needs to be moisturized with neetsfoot oil. work it in and try not to flatten it out at all until it has had a bit of a drink. slowly unfold and moisturized over many days and as it unfolds you will see how workable it is. be gentle it is likely fragile. There will be nothing like shaving with your grandfathers razor. I have my great grandfathers razor and use it for "special" shaves.

[MikeT]

Okay thanks! Will do.
I keep on seeing mentions of this neetsfoot oil everywhere on SRP, seems as though it is used for strops, scales, AND blades... must be good stuff!

[RezDog]

It works really well on leather and horn. Strops, boots etc etc.

[sharptonn]

No worries on any of that. Feather, A Japanese company, copied the Autostrop design long, long ago.
Feather blades can be had which drop right into an Autostrop. No better shave has ever been had! JMO

[GaryG]

Those Feather blades are scary sharp, and do drop right in but only to specific AutoStrop models, not all of them.

[sharptonn]

I found them to be quite nice in the Autostrop pictured. Nothing like Feather DE's, much thicker.
Thing shaves great with no fear of cutting one's self. I have 4 shaves into one blade. I may 'Autostrop' it after the next shave. It's kindof fun to do!

I will say canned goo won't work with them well. You need good, slick lather, FME.

[GaryG]

I found them to be quite nice in the Autostrop pictured. Nothing like Feather DE's, much thicker.
Thing shaves great with no fear of cutting one's self. I have 4 shaves into one blade. I may 'Autostrop' it after the next shave. It's kindof fun to do!

I will say canned goo won't work with them well. You need good, slick lather, FME.

The razor pictured looks just like mine, you can also make one by taking the spline off a modern SE blade and nipping the rear corners. There is no place for canned goo, anyplace, ever .. to use it with that razor would be a sacrilege