Thread: Questions

1. I have some old strops with linen that is pretty clean but hard as a rock. Do you guys suggest having the linen dry-cleaned or something? How to soften it up and clean it?


2. I used neats foot oil on my horse hide strop, and now it leaves behind a residue whenever I use it. I oiled it a week ago, but it still has a dark color.
Is it ruined?

Any help appreciated.

Originally Posted by toolarts

1. I have some old strops with linen that is pretty clean but hard as a rock. Do you guys suggest having the linen dry-cleaned or something? How to soften it up and clean it?


2. I used neats foot oil on my horse hide strop, and now it leaves behind a residue whenever I use it. I oiled it a week ago, but it still has a dark color.
Is it ruined?

Any help appreciated.

1) Assuming this is the old tubular linen hose impregnated with wax? Does it start to crack if you bend it? Wrap it in a damp dish towel and iron it on a hard flat surface. Use the "linen" setting. Iron just until the cloth starts to dry. After it's cooled, try pulling it taut and giving it a good hand finish with the palm of your free hand. This should help loosen it up. If a little bit of stuff starts crumbling off in fine particles, that's ok. If in large chunks, you may have to just remove the coating from the outside. Try applying some alcohol (rubbing alcohol does a good job) to a cotton cloth and rub the linen with the cloth. The alcohol will soften the wax a bit and help redistribute it over the strop.

I'm not sure what dry cleaning would do to your strop, probably remove all wax from it though. I wouldn't recommend it.

2) You may have over-saturated your strop. I'd wash it with some shaving lather, or maybe some saddle soap, just to remove the excess. Then just give it frequent hand dressings to keep it in shape. When applying dressings to strops, do so conservatively. I don't think you ruined the strop.


Scott

I was going to say if you have one of those hand steamers that would probably do the trick. The goal is to use heat and moisture to kind of loosten things up without saturating it. I agree if that doesn't work just a scrub brush some detergent and some elbow grease will clean it all out but you will lose all the stiffness.

As far as the leather goes I also sgree you probably put too much oil on. You need just a few drops and then just work in in real good. Sometimes people get carried away and that can saturate the strop. Eventually it will dry out. You can try some absorbant pads to try and soak up the excess oil.