Mr. Ugly and suction

I made a homemade strop of black Latigo leather and called it Mr. Ugly. I have pics up in the show and tell area.

Anyway I notice that Mr. Ugly ever so slightly sucks the razor to leather. Just enough that I can tell by sound and feel. Doesn't interfere with the stropping. I was reading about breaking Mr. Ugly in with Williams shave soap and that this suction is due to an unbroken strop.

Will this affect the strop or the razor edge and should I just go ahead and put some Williams on it and not worry?

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Originally Posted by singlewedge

Will this affect the strop or the razor edge and should I just go ahead and put some Williams on it and not worry?

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I don't recall ever reading anything about putting soap on the leather part of a strop...but that is a common method of prepping the linen side. I would think soaping the leather would make it stickier but on the other hand it wouldn't cause any damage and would be easy to remove so I can see no harm in trying that if you wish.

In general latigo has a pretty high draw. You can vary the amount of draw by either putting various stuff on the leather or by burnishing the leather. If the draw is too high to suite you my advice is to lay your strop on a flat surface and rub it with a glass bottle or jar.

A light charge of shaving soap applied with the brush will clean the surface - wipe it on and rub it off well. If the leather is still too oily (blade sucks/sticks too much, ie draw is still too great) the leather can be charged with soap again, left an hour or two, then buffed free of soap. The oils in latigo saturate the leather, so there shouldn't be too much problem with removing them all - on a plain leather you may have re-condition with neatsfoot oil or yellow paste.

Take time to let the strop dry fully and don't make the lather too wet. You won't get an idea of how the strop is going to respond to the treatment until it has fully dried out, maybe next day.

Regards,
Neil.