Thread: strop dressing

I have couple pieces of belt leather, and want to make some strops. I also have some Bata (italian shoe company) leather dressing, with bee's wax in it. Is this suitable to use on the strop? Any thoughts on this?

Thanx.

Hey Superfly,

I saw no one responded and wanted to give you a little heads up before you rushed into this.

You can probably use it. I would check the ingredients to make sure there was nothing toxic you might be injecting into your skin if you got cut. Contact the manufacturer and ask them if they use anything toxic or what whould happen if it got injected into someones blood stream or get an MSDS sheet from them or something.

Also you might get wax buildup.

I would not use it but that's just me. Some things are just not worth dying over

Same thing goes for the leather. You don't know where it's been. Some of the practices for tanning is not exactly intended for other uses.

I worked in a leather garment factory in my youth. Somebody suggested making leather condoms as a joke. He got lots of flack for it.

I sell strops, so does Tony, you can find them on ebay or other great merchants such as classic shaving that support these forums.

Fromm & Dovo make dressing.

Good luck.

George

ggenovez, thanx for reply,

The leather is from the army suply, brand new. It is thick cowhide leather, i think. The color is a light brownish yellow. I was planing on sanding with 60-120-200-400-800 grits, and then dressing the leather. I have a tube of DOVO Yellow paste, and will use that, but i wanted something for first primar dressing on the strop. I always wipe the blade with 96% Isopropyl alcohol before use...

I might get some DOVO Yellow on it, since i have already sliced the belt

I think the Dovo yellow will be fine and have used it myself. There are many leather choice that will work well and each has it's following.

George, thanks for the plug on the strops and one could do well with any of our strops whether from you , me or Ray.

Tony

Superfly, why do you want to sand the strops? I used sandpaper once to smooth out a strop and ended up with a bunch of abrasive paarticles becoming embedded in the leather! I wrecked my razor!
I have never used sandpaper on leather since that experience.

Hope this helps,

the surface of the leather looks like it has a very thin lacker or color coating on it, i want to remove that. I have used sandpaper on my dovo premium strop, and havent had problems with sandpaper.particles. But i have destroyed a couple of edges with norton lapped on sandpaper.

I am always a proponent of not using any paste on a strop unless it is somewhat stiff. So long as the leather is soft and supple, I usually don't put any paste on it. The only other time I paste is after I clean a strop with saddle soap and let it dry. Then I usually use either a mink oil or baseball glove oil. I have used the white tube paste as well. The keep is to use it sparingly and really rub it in good getting all the excess off. Good luck. Lynn