Thread: Strop cleaning

I bought a baker universal strop at a second hand store and now i need to clean it. I was thinking about saddle soap? Should I think again. Will post picks as soon as my batteries recharge

Wait for others to weigh in, but I think it would be a great way to clean the strop. I've never tried saddle soap, but I've heard reference to it and it is meant for leather. So I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.

I know a lot of guys like saddle soap and it will work however I don't like it.

saddle soap was created for cleaning.. saddles, really tough thick leather. The problem to me is you have to use water with it and that ain't good for the kind of leather most strops use. I like Bick which is designed to be used with no water. Its a gel and its PH balanced to match the leather and it does a great job.

I did wind up using the saddle soap and it came out looking nice. I need to charge my batteries so i can post pics.

A little sanding might also do it really well to clean it up nice. Good luck!

Some of the leather craftsmen that I have talked to in the past have said that saddle soap leaves a residue that will rot the leather. I have had boots that have had that problem but it may be that strop type leather will not care.


R

Originally Posted by riooso

Some of the leather craftsmen that I have talked to in the past have said that saddle soap leaves a residue that will rot the leather. I have had boots that have had that problem but it may be that strop type leather will not care.


R

I have not heard of that. I will have to look into alts then. Which saddle soap where you useing

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

saddle soap was created for cleaning.. saddles, really tough thick leather. The problem to me is you have to use water with it and that ain't good for the kind of leather most strops use.

My daughter has been cleaning her horse tack for about 20 yrs now. She says saddle soap isn't really a soap at all but something to protect the leather after cleaning. Horse saddles and bridles are cleaned with plain water. Then saddle soap is applied with a barely damp sponge, she says the sponge should be about as wet as if you have spat on it. She's never experienced any kind of leather damage from saddle soap (and saddles are expensive). To improve old cracking, dried out leather she has used Mars oil.
I showed her a razor strop and she says that she doesn't think saddle soap is the right thing to use.
She mentioned in passing that some people say that neatsfoot oil can damage stitching but she has never had a problem. She started cleaning saddles at the local riding school aged 10 and has been doing it ever since.

The saddlesoap I've seen is definitely a soap. it contains conditioners and other things but when mixed with some water it is a soap. Maybe there are different kinds. maybe there is true classic stuff they sell in tack shops and other stuff they more commonly sell in shoe stores.

Originally Posted by welshwizard

She mentioned in passing that some people say that neatsfoot oil can damage stitching but she has never had a problem.

I can answer that one. This is probably not true anymore, but a very long time ago, up through the 50's or 60's a lot of oils and greases that were sold for leather were made from animal fats. i.e. mink oil which is rendered fat from the same little critters that were killed en-mass to produce real mink coats.

Any oil that is from animal sources will to an absolutely fantastic job of conditioning "working" leather like boots that are worn regularly or saddles that are ridden regularly, but if left to sit, the oils will get rancid and attract bacteria. These bacteria do a great job of eating up natural stitching materials.


However, there isn't much need to worry about that in this century because very few leather conditioning products are manufactured from these materials anymore, and leather stitching is almost always done with modern synthetic threads that are much stronger than their older natural counterparts.

That being said, if you are trying to seal and condition a very old strop that may actually have natural stitching, be sure that you're not using one of the TINY handful of products on the market made from animal fat. FYI, neatsfoot oil does not contain animal fats, and hasn't for decades, but the old wives' tale persists.