Thread: care for vintage horse strops

I've got an old vintage horse strop I'm using, and am curious if I should be rubbing mink oil or anything into it, or just the occasional palm of the hand thing.

I think I remember reading something somewhere, maybe Tony's or Keith's site, saying don't put anything on these horse shell strops...

Is the leather dry or is it supple? If it is supple, hand rubbing should do. If it is somewhat dry, more drastic measures may be needed, in which case, wiser sages that I are floating around to give advice.

- Michael

I agree with ohlookaneagle, I have a vintage horse hide strop as well; which i restored from an unusable condition. what shape is it in?

I use Lanolin/white spirit as a dressing for my horse hide strops. "Anhydrous wool fat" is the chemists name for it and is what Rolls Royce use as a dressing for their car upholstery. I started using it on my WW2 Irvin flying jacket but then the light bulb came on, " I could use this on that old Horse hide strop couldn't I!" It worked a treat. Small amounts as usual are the best way to use a dressing.

PuFF

Originally Posted by ucliker

I agree with ohlookaneagle, I have a vintage horse hide strop as well; which i restored from an unusable condition. what shape is it in?

Very good condition. Very flat and fairly supple. It doesn't feel dry at all, but I don't know horsehide well enough to know exactly how 'soft' or supple it should be. It isn't this supple for example...

That's also where I read not to treat horse leather. But the lanolin sounds good, and puffah knows his strops.

G"DAY YOU ALL< being as i am a cowboy> i used rm williams saddle dressing on the underside of my antique strop and that has worked a treat. hand rubbed in< several applications over a couple of weeks. any good saddle dressing would be ok, just don"t overdo it.


cHEERS

I have a couple old horsehide strops. If its in good condition you don't need to treat it any different than any other strop. Either an occassional coat of any quality leather dressing like bick or lexol or an oil or you can just use the palm of your hand and the natural oil from your hand will do the job also.

Originally Posted by heelerau

G"DAY YOU ALL< being as i am a cowboy> i used rm williams saddle dressing on the underside of my antique strop and that has worked a treat. hand rubbed in< several applications over a couple of weeks. any good saddle dressing would be ok, just don"t overdo it.


cHEERS

My recommendations also!