Thread: Pattern forming on surface of my strop

Gents,

I'm starting to notice a pattern forming on my heirloom latigo. It looks almost like a slightly darker, almost grey, fine fur and is forming in a sort of tiger/zebra pattern. It is very slight.

Should I be worried or taking any action? I did think I'd oil it to see if it disappeared, but on second thoughts I'm not in a rush to do that as it is still flexible enough.

No, actually I think you have yourself one of Tony's rare and exotic "Predator vs Prey" razor strops. Got to get me one of those...


No, really...all joking aside, I have no idea what's happening to your strop. Tony will chime in though.



Scott

Originally Posted by welshwarrior

Gents,

I'm starting to notice a pattern forming on my heirloom latigo. It looks almost like a slightly darker, almost grey, fine fur and is forming in a sort of tiger/zebra pattern. It is very slight.

Should I be worried or taking any action? I did think I'd oil it to see if it disappeared, but on second thoughts I'm not in a rush to do that as it is still flexible enough.

Fur-like spots? Is it just on the surface, and can you wipe it off easily? If so, perhaps this is mold or mildew.

Not sure how Ireland's climate is, but here in Florida, if we don't run the air conditioner or a dehumidifier in our house during the more humid times of the year, we can see the grey fur-like spots of mold start to appear on surfaces. I just found it on my leather shoes in a closet the other day. Had to open up the closet and left air circulate in there.

If this is indeed what it is, it should just wipe off. If if continues to grow back, as it did on the gourd of a calabash pipe I have, you will need to wipe it off with something that will kill it. I used a clorox bleach cleaning wipe on the pipe, and it hasn't returned, but I doubt this is the right thing for your strop! Maybe Tony could answer that one. I wouldn't use it on my TM heirloom latigo without being told it is safe to do so. You should also consider storing it in a less-humid environment.

Andrew

Nope, it's not mould. Climate is okay here. It's like the pattern of the bark on an oak tree, areas that are slightly more raised than others.

Pictures are worth a thousand words - and I could have spared a hundred or so on just my post .

Can you post a pic?

Andrew

How's this? The lighter patches feel like a raised area to the touch.

Do you have a razor with a worked spine? I have one and it leaves streaks on the surface of my strop even at gentle pressure. Hand-rubbing usually fixes that.

They look like fat lines to me. Could they be the places where the cow had subcutantious fat under the skin? This often causes a pattern in the skin surface. It might only be showing up because of a worked or sharpish spine scraping the finish off the highest spots in the leather. Is your strop a little dry, or has the weather changed dramatically with the onset of spring perhaps causing either a drying of the finish or a swelling of the flesh allowing these area to be scraped more harshly than the rest of the srtop?

If its a little dry or been a significant time since you last conditioned your strop a light conditioning might be in order.

Thanks for all your advice and input so far, all.

Update on this:
I conditioned the strop and it looked good as new after a few hours.

I stropped this morning using one of my rotation and the marks started appearing again. A further investigation reveals that the spine of the razor has some hone-wear on it which is causing it to rub on the strop. The strop is raised slightly in some areas which is why the pattern is forming in some areas worse than others.

Has anyone else experienced this? It seems a bit of a pain but is the only solution to tape my spines before stropping?

I would say the solution is not to worry about it to much. It is happening due to the way the cow grew his skin not anything you did or are doing, accept that in a natural product there are natural inconsistancies, they won't affect the effect the strop has on the razor.