Pretty good strop nick...

I thought I'd practiced enough, but shortly after buying my red latigo strop from SRD I put a pretty nasty nick in it. More like a cut, actually. It's located about six inches above the handle, and it's almost an entire blade in length. I'm gonna blame it on a poorly timed sneeze. That's my story...

Anyway, I've "dressed" it up as much as I can. I've removed the leather pieces, rubbed it a lot, and tried to make it feel smooth.

So the question is, can I run my blade over this area without concern while stropping? It really interferes with the length of my stropping stroke when I avoid it.

depends how flat you made that spot.

Not only how flat but you should still have enough strop left above the cut to work well without touching that area.

Hello you must be bumming

You may be able to glue down the cut if it is a flap, I used barge cement, then with 400 grit sandpaper, you may have to be aggressive with the sandpaper, I had a very small valley in my practice strop but it did not seem to effect the stropping action. I then use neatsfoot oil to finish off the strop and did a lot of rubs with a smooth glass bottle.

Good luck

crom

Who ever invents a "nick proof" strop is going to be king of the hill !


Tony

Jimmy
I had a DublDuk # 70 strop from the 60's that had 2 nicks along the right edge. I didn't use it since then until recently when someone posted the idea that you can use sandpaper on a damaged strop to make it useable again. Sanding removes the smooth surface and gives the surface a suede texture and is good for an initial strop ( very much like a canvas / linen strop ) . The idea is to salvage a nicked strop if possible, and it usually is possible.

I am wondering if a sanded strop impregnated with Cr Ox or diamond spray or Ce Ox would work as nicely as we might like to think it should. If anyone has sanded a damaged strop and got some good results from it, speak up, please.