Thread: Removing dings/impressions

I'm sorry if this has been answered before. I did some searches and couldn't find the answer I needed.

I have a Dovo strop that is pretty dinged up. I'm not sure what caused the damage, but it looks like it has a few dog tooth marks in it. The leather isn't punctured. The few dings are quite deep, however. Some of the dings/impressions are at the edge and some are toward the center of the strop. There are no jagged tears or nicks.

Will this effect the performance of the strop and if so, is there a way I can smooth out or repair the damage?

Thanks much.

That strop sounds like it might be excellent to administer corporal punishment but for razors forget it. You might try soaking it in water until its saturated and then letting it slowly dry but its probably toast.

Thanks. That's what I was afraid of.

Fortunately, it didn't cost me anything.

You might try just wetting the low areas in order to swell the low spots rather than soak the whole thing

Depressions shouldn't cause a problem when stropping, whereas raised areas would. I would wet it and roll it with a glass bottle or jar to make sure the majority of the surface is as flat as possible.

There is one other trick you might try. Place a wet wash cloth over the dings and apply heat with an iron. I've successfully used this to remove dings in a rifle stock.