Thread: Smoothing out the rough side of a strop.

I have an old TM practice strop. I want to turn this into my travel strop. There are 2 things i need to do.

1) Smooth out the nicks and cuts i put in it. Will try to follow the wiki for this, but any tips/suggestions would be great.

2) Smooth out the rough side an apply CrO to it. Is there just a simple progression of sandpaper i need to use, then apply neatsfoot oil?

Contact cement really works for gluing down flaps. Pumice stone for small nicks and touching up after the contact cement if necessary. I don't know about smoothing out the rough side.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Contact cement really works for gluing down flaps. Pumice stone for small nicks and touching up after the contact cement if necessary. I don't know about smoothing out the rough side.

Thanks. do you know of anywhere other than classicshaving to get a pumice stone?

I found a nice sized one at a beauty supply locally. They are also used to remove callous and dead skin from the hands, feet and elbows. Here is one on ebay if you don't want to bother looking locally.

I believe Bath & Body Works has them.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I found a nice sized one at a beauty supply locally. They are also used to remove callous and dead skin from the hands, feet and elbows. Here is one on ebay if you don't want to bother looking locally.

Thanks. looks like the local place has it. Heel to Toe - Heel to Toe Pumice Stone

So, i'm guessing i need to apply some neatsfoot oil or strop conditioner afterwards.

/if i can find a local place selling neatsfoot

With Neatsfoot a little goes a long way. I rarely use it on a strop but when I do I put some on a rag and wipe a wee bit on and rub it in. When you apply it directly to the strop it seems to absorb too much at the place where it is originally applied and than it is harder to spread evenly. IME anyhow.

I smoothed out the rough side of a strop by going from 220,something, 600, 800, then i rubbed it down with mineral oil, and used strop conditioner then stropped on it with an old dull razor for a couple hours and went over it with conditioner a few more times. all in all it turned out really nice, but it was a while ago so i don't remember exactly what i did but that was the procedure.