Thread: Kanayama Strop Care

Good Day Gents,

I have never put anything on any strop other than a brisk rubbing of my palm to warm the leather and put the oils that are in my hand onto the strop ( not much oils on my hand to be honest ), so with that said all my strops look very conditioned except my Kanayama.

I researched strop care from several makers and most all say don't apply any conditioners/oils unless you want to change the draw and Kanayama especially says nothing but your palm and occasionally use a warm damp cotton cloth to wipe the strop which I have done over the past year or so, anyway the strop looks dry but does kinda have a shine to it but also has what looks like dry streaks and I am wondering if I need to say apply maybe a few drops of Neatsfoot oil or maybe some Fromm's to my palm and briskly rub it in.

I have read thru the Kanayama strop care and it's advised never to apply oil just wipe with a warm damp cotton cloth but this seems like it would take away oils or is that thinking wrong.

So looking to you strop masters for suggestions, I truly love the feedback/draw of the strop and don't want to ruin the cordovan by applying somthing I should not but also concerned about the dry streaks.

I have two of those Kanayama Strops and all I ever do is take a damp sponge and run it over the strop. The oils are distributed throughout the leather as part of the leather finishing process so a damp cloth rubbed over the strop surface infrequently won't affect the strop negatively.

I live in single digit humidity and have never experienced any kind of drying out of the leather.

I have found nothing more needed than a well rung out piece of cotton towel run over the surface once or twice a year does the trick, definitely no oils or conditioners the draw is just about perfection I don't want to chance altering that.

I only cleaned mine once, damp cotton cloth and nothing else. It's still as supple as it was when it came and the draw is unchanged. I wouldn't apply oils and conditioners to it, personally.. not yet anyway!

Thank you gents for the replies, the strop is very supple and soft but has a few spots that look dry, maybe this evening when I am home I can snap a few pics. I do wipe it down with a damp microfiber cloth a few times a year so maybe it's the microfiber that's scratching the leather but I use very light pressure and no back & fourth scrubbing.

It does have a very light sheen to it but not shiny like my TM or Scruplework strops, I also use softened water to wipe it with but I am sure that does not matter, all my strops hang in the bathroom but it's a very large master bath and the strops are far away from the shower like maybe 6' or so and the bathroom as I said is a pretty large room.

I have only maintained my Kanayama strops with a daily hand rubbing. This is usually done late afternoon as I wipe my palm across my forehead and use medium to light pressure on the strop.

Well i came home this evening and looked at the strop and it looked ok but then I did a light stropping of about 40 laps and hopefully you can see what I am seeing, the strop looks dry and it looks like light scratches and it does this pretty much with any razor I strop on it, the edge is not affected at all, so is this a concern ?

I've got 3 Kanayamas and they all look pretty much the same as yours. The only maintenance I ever give them is a rubdown with the palm of the hand before use, and a wipe with a damp cloth a couple of times a year to clean the surface. Shell cordovan is not leather, in the strictest sense of the word, since it does not come from the actual skin of the horse. I would be very hesitant to use any leather products on it or deviate from the maker's instructions in any way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_cordovan