Thread: Putting weight on strop to flatten

I've been putting weight on my strop to maintain its flatness, and was wondering if this is a good idea for a prolonged period of time. I've had a very heavy atlas with a toolbox on top sitting on my strop (I wrapped the strop in a rag first so nothing would happen to the surface) for almost a week now. I currently have all 3 of my razors out for honing, so I have no use for the strop right now, so I'm just leaving it under all that weight....

Does anybody see any problem with leaving a lot of weight on a strop for this long (or longer)? If not, I'm just going to keep it on the strop until I need it, you can't get it too flat right??? (I hope not!)

Dave

why are you doing this ? isn't your strop flat now? I just keep mine hanging in the bathroom no problems

Considering that these are made from leather, I don't think that you will have much of a problem assuming that the strop is not wet or anything; there is nothing from a physical/chemical standpoint that would suggest otherwise.

Best,

Jay

Originally Posted by Doc

why are you doing this ? isn't your strop flat now? I just keep mine hanging in the bathroom no problems

+1 on Doc's post, i keep mine in the bathroom with no problems, unless it has got wet, there should be no problems.....

Mark.....

Originally Posted by nurse42312

+1 on Doc's post, i keep mine in the bathroom with no problems, unless it has got wet, there should be no problems.....

Mark.....

Mine's in the bathroom too! I've traveled pretty extensively with my strop and it had gotten a little curved from being packed often, however it always pulls straight under tension. The thing to do to flatten it is rub a glass bottle over the strop every now and again. i did this and didn't notice the little raised bumps on my bottle until they were etched into my strop.

Less is more in this case.

=)

Cheers!

Yea, if its flat to begin with you will accomplish nothing. If its not the weight will probably do nothing to correct it you will have to take other measures. However in and of itself the weight will not harm the strop.

Thanks for your honesty everyone.

It was initially to flatten the strop (or to keep it flat). Looking back now, it was kind of a useless thing to do! As long as it didn't harm the strop....

Dave

i dont think it would hurt it but i cant see why you would have to do it either hang it in the bathroon if it isnt flat then you can manipuplate the leather back into shape no problem

so my strop sat belnt for many years, and has a permenent bend in it as a result..

take a wine bottle to it you say? a wine bottle and some flat weight? what should i do?

Originally Posted by p.z.

so my strop sat belnt for many years, and has a permenent bend in it as a result..

take a wine bottle to it you say? a wine bottle and some flat weight? what should i do?

If it has a permanent crease in it hanging a weight or using a rolling pin will likely do nothing. You can try it but if it doesn't work you need to saturate the strop in water and then let it slowly dry out and the crease will come out. You might be left with some staining on the strop but it won't affect the functionality of the strop. Just make sure you use liberal amounts of leather conditioner after it dries out.