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A lot has been posted about sterilising any old straights that we buy. Does anyone place the same amount of imortance on old/used strops?
I recently bought an old used horsehide strop of ebay, and was wondering if there is anything I can do to at least make it as clean and sterile as possible.
blast it with hard UV? irradiate it with cobalt60? hit it with 5MeV of xray?
I have a small collection of vintage strops. I haven't done anything to them unless they needed some TLC. Those that were in good shape upon receipt were just hung and used occasionally. A bit of saddle soap and some neatsfoot if necessary might be in order but I wouldn't worry about sterilizing . I haven't had any health problems as a result of mine. YMMV :)
I've bought a couple of vintage strops & it's never bothered me. You're probably not going to get anything life threatening from it. You're not that likely to from a razor that's not been used in a while either as far as i know. Just use it. You'll give your immune system a workout at worst i reckon!
Just sneeze in your elbow while stropping and your strop should be just fine.
:tu
You could hang it out in blazing sunshine for the UV to get at it. If a bit dry, rubbing ballistol into it not only softens but mildly disinfects.
Regards,
Neil
Anything that would sterilize it would probably destroy or damage it. Actually I wouldn't worry about it. There are enough other scary things to worry about in life.
I agree with the rest of the post Hugo ... I dont think you will catch anything off an old stop.
Not unless your useing it to strop scalpels in the operating room :)
Happy stropping
Marvellous.