Thread: cleaning a strop

i have a horse hide strop that i put cro on and i wont to take it off how is the best way to take it off. any help will be useful thanks.

Try Saddle Soap, it isn't complicated. Saddle Soap should be fairly easy to find. I get mine at the local Kroger .
Use as little water as possible, while following the directions. Use a clean DAMP cloth, or sponge to remove the lather and whatever. Repeat this a couple, or three times. If yu are still getting stuff off the strop, do it again.
Once you have it clean, let the strop dry SLOWLY. Once it's completely dry, you may want to put a LITTLE conditioner on your strop. Aussie, Dr. Johnsons, or neatsfoot oil. All of them have directions on the container. Use as little as you can, 'cause a little goes a long way.

Good luck!

ronnie,

I was going to suggest the same approach. It is possible that you may never get all the Cr203 out of the leather as it's a porous material and those oxide particles are parts of millionths of a meter in diameter. You'll probably get the most of it, but likely will have to put up with a touch of extra polish for as long as you use the strop - and that may not be all bad.

good luck,

My first question would be why do you want to take it off? If you want to use the strop as a plain leather strop forget it because you will never get all the abrasive off. If you want to repaste it with a more abrasive media or at least the same grit then it will be OK. I've seen guys use a variety of things to clean paste off. Saddle soap, degreaser to name a couple.

Hi there...

Yesterday evening I was wondering the same thing. I applied, some time ago, some paste on a stop of mine... as a newbie mistake I pasted my best and only strop (Dovo)... I applied some strange black paste that old barbers used to touch up the razor's edge. No harm done because I made my own strops and they work fine. But I wanted to refurbish this strop because it's got a linnen side that I like and the strop is too good to be used only from time to time.

So this is what I did: I grabed a pumice stone and a piece of snad paper. With the sand paper I managed to remove some nicks and, with a light touch, remove some bits of paste that were thicker. Then I rubbed the pumice stone on the strop in a variety of circular motions. It took a while but almost all the paste came out like that... after that I cleaned the strop with a clean cloth and applied some Nivea hand Cream (the blue tub one). Did that with my fingers in a circular motion, rubbed it in and buffed up with a clean cloth.
The results were very good. The strop might add a minimal ammout of extra polish to the edge but it's not a bad thing. The strop is looking like new... Until yesterday... I was happily stropping and I nicked badly! Managed to mend that, though... but there's a chunk missing, now!

Oh well... just my 2 cents...

Depending on the nick, an old trick is to cut the excess off (from the nick) wet the raw leather underneath, and press it under a book until it dries. The porous leather beneath will at first swell up to meet the level of the book (and the rest of the strop) and then, as it dries, harden that way. It will be a little different, but much better than the original nick. You can then use a pumice stone or conditioner or whatever treatment you feel like, followed by a good rubbing with a glass bottle to smooth it out.
Hope this helps.

John P.