Thread: Strop maintanence

Hi.

I am looking for different options to maintain the leather soft on a leather and canvas strap. I did a shaving School at Geo. F. Trumper and they used a kind of oil there to keep it soft, but I can not remember what it was.

Thank you.

Johnny

Neatsfoot oil seems to be the most commonly used preparation. Use it sparingly and only when the strop really needs it. If I find the draw on my strop starts to wain, I'll put 2 or 3 drops in the palm of my hand, rub my hands together and then wipe them up and down on the strop... Better to have to do this a couple of times rather than getting too much oil on the strop.

Regards

Christian

With regards to maintanence....



I have, in my quest to learn better technique, managed to put some small nicks in ends of the strop. There are no "chunks" missing but the finished side of the leather is nicked up pretty good nontheless.

Is there any way to safely remove these nicks or are they nothing to be concerned about?

Thanks again for the info and your patience!

Allen

Is there any way to safely remove these nicks or are they nothing to be concerned about?

Yes, and yes! You can safely remove these nicks
with a pumice stone. You shouldn't be concerned
about these either, so feel free to ignore them.

- Scott

In regards to maintanence:
I have a few questions regarding maintanence of old strops. I picked mine up at an antique store, mostly to learn on, what kinds of steps should I take to clean it up, should I use like saddle soap? And with the pumice, I take it you just kind of sand it down, but what then? Do you condition it with anything after using the pumice? Sorry for the newbie-ness of this post just trying to get as much info as possible.

Stiff shaving lather (I use Williams, cheap and good) works just fine, no need to buy saddle soap. You'll find that the shaving lather conditions leather quite well so you might not need anything else. I've used waterless hand cleaner (not the citrus based one) such as what mechanics use but I wasn't too happy with the results on one particular vintage strop, it got nice and supple but there is something that keeps coming off the strop and sticking to the razor so I'm going to have to clean it some more.

When you have the shaving lather on the strop you can carefully use the pumice stone to deal with any nicks and or for that matter rub the entire strop with it before wiping off the lather. Let the strop lie on table until it dries and I think you'll find it much better. If it feels too slick after a couple days of use, you can use a few drops of neatsfoot oil in the palm of one hand. Rub your two hands together and then massage the strop as if your palm was a razor, switch hands to use the oil left on the opposite palm. Don't get carried away, you don't want to soak the strop. The next day if the draw is still too light, repeat until you reach your desired draw.

Regards

Christian