Thread: goop on strop

Lots of other good ideas already posted.

Start with as little additional goo as possible.
Try rubbing it with brown paper or with another clean
but sturdy paper.

How about shave soap ... it's already recommended to condition a strop ... wouldn't it also clean the strop?

Any opinions?

Originally Posted by loueedacat

I pretty often get, for lack of a better word, sticky grime or goop on the strop after using it. I've been honing a few ebay buys so I imagine there is more dirt and maybe metal detritus than usual being stropped off, but what's the best way to clean the strop (it's a tony miller latigo).

just rubbing my palm on it sometimes gets it to come up. other times I've put a little water on and palmed it, and that got it to come right up, but I don't like putting water on leather for obvious reasons.

Something is not right here.

Without knowing what the goop is I would not recommend
a cleaner of any type.

I would recommend rubbing the strop with clean brown paper
or clean newsprint.

My guess is that it is normal wax and oil in the leather that is
surfacing.

Tell us the history of the strop. Has it been treated at all?
Strop dressing is "fat", some contain waxes like mink oil does.
Neatsfoot oil?

I have used GOOP, (plain, no abrasive) on a number of old strops. It cleans old strops very effectively.

However, as has been mentioned, why is your stop getting "goopy"? It really sounds like it has been over saturated with some conditioner/oil/shaving soap. I hope someone has suggestions for removing the stuff.

Good luck,

I have not tried this yet but what about placing the strop on an ironing board, covering it with a cloth, and then taking a warm iron and ironing it? Perhaps the heat from the iron would make the "goop" liquid and be absorbed by the cloth?

Just an idea,

Originally Posted by randydance062449

I have not tried this yet but what about placing the strop on an ironing board, covering it with a cloth, and then taking a warm iron and ironing it? Perhaps the heat from the iron would make the "goop" liquid and be absorbed by the cloth?

Just an idea,

Good idea but heat is not an ideal solution.
Just rub with the same cloth and see if anything
comes off. Pressing without heat with clean paper
in contact with the leather can remove excess
strop dressing as will time.

Just wanted to post my very recent experience with a "sticky" or "goopy" strop. Yesterday, I used a damp rag with shave soap to clean an ebay purchased strop (note - damp rag, and not water, as I didn't want to soak the leather). Quite a bit of cordovan colored junk came off of the strop, revealing the original surface.

Anyway, what I wanted to report is that after a pretty good cleaning, I noticed a couple of nicks and one shallow surface slice that had been hidden/covered/filled by the built up residue. I am almost wondering if building up a strop with conditioners may have been a short-cut solution to a strop with nicks and cuts, much like filling a natural stone with hairline hairline cracks with wax or other substances to prevent the blade from "catching" when honing/stropping.

Anyway, once clean, I let the surface dry for 24 hours. At this point, the strop had lost its stickiness, and seemed to have a better surface for stropping, but the now exposed "crinkles", nicks, etc. made the stropping surface less than ideal. If you try this, I would suggest you may want to condition the strop following the cleaning. I am currently experimenting with glycerine rather than an oil-based conditioner, although once I see the results of the glycerine as a "restorer", I will probably use the hand-rub method for the longer term. So far, the glycerine (and I would guess a strop conditioner) has very nicely transformed the strop from one with nicks and a decent cut, to one that looks as if it is ready to be fully functional. I am theorizing that the conditioning has caused the leather to slightly swell, filling space and maybe facilitating some adhesion or bonding within the cuts/nicks. For what it's worth ...