Thread: Damaged strop

Hey guys,

I know this is probably a really dumb question but what constitutes a damaged strop and when do you send the strop back to be repaired and when can you just do it yourself? Also, can water shrink your strop where your razor doesn't sit flush on your strop? It very well might be my technique stropping, I just taught myself to stop on an old whipped strop and then upgraded a year ago to a nicer strop but lately for some reason I been having a lot of problems stopping and keeping my straight sharp. I sent my 7/8 RA out to Lynn to be sharpened barely two months ago and now it's pulling so bad I can't even shave with it. Before I never had any trouble with my 5/8 and 6/8 razors and stropping them so it has to be my technique or I did have water Damage in my bathroom and I'm wondering of it damaged my strop. When is it worth fixing and when is it worth just sending out to get a replacement piece? Here is a picture of my damaged TM strop.


GReg

Couple questions.

How do you maintain your strop?

How steamy is your bathroom after a shower ?

How is the strop anchored?

The pics don't show much. Is the strop stiff and hard or are there gouges in it or cuts. If not then there is no issue with the strop. I don't know anyone who works on strop repair. if it's hard or has similar issues some conditioner should fix it. The rule of thumb is if it's soft and supple and when you run the razor over it you can't feel imperfections then you're OK.

You have to tell us if there are other issues we can't see.

As far as issues with the razor you must be doing something different to cause issues. Unless the strop has very serious issues it wouldn't cause damage to your razor.

As long as there are no pieces /rough parts, standing proud then there shouldn't be a problem. If there are, rub them down with fine wet and dry so they're below the stropping surface. Shouldn't then affect the razor. Keep it supple with a fine dressing of neats foot oil. Rub it with your palm before use, should be ok.