Thread: Vintage Strop Find

A few days ago I picked this strop up on ebay for a whopping $32 and at the time, it seemed like a good buy given that the linen was by Dubl Duck (in the cleaning process I lost the cool little logo ). Tomorrow I'll be picking up some Neats Foot Oil to try and clean up the leather and hopefully it will be somewhat useful. Do you guys have any other tips to clean up the linen? I've tried and failed with woolite and a brush, washing machine and even oxiclean.

I've done them with Woolite and a brush and then laid them out flat to dry and had good results as far as the feel of the linen. I didn't always get out all of the stains but that is inconsequential IMO.

Stains don't bother me much, the only thing that I would like to fix is the thick bee's wax feel that it has. At first I though it was pasted but then noticed a honey smell to the substance. Heck, I may be wrong and foolish but its a very odd feel non-the-less.

I don't know without actually feeling it myself. Vintage linens are not the same as the linen that Tony Miller supplies. The old ones I have and I have about a dozen are a very tight weave and seem to be treated with a substance that almost looks like plastic although I'm sure that it is not. Looking at the photo I wonder if the staining isn't from the leather ?

I've done all of the above with pretty good results. You can try some pre treat/stain stuff on it. For the Leather, before you do the Neetsfoot oil, try cleaning it with some saddle soap, once dry, you can do the neetsfoot oil, I let mine dry overnight, and did multiple coating of oil.

Be very careful in your decision about removing the wax. Many vintage strops have the wax which was applied by the manufacturer. I believe it serves a special purpose by filling in the grain of the linen and giving the strop an almost glass like smoothness. It may also contain some abrasive compound, or not. Not sure of that. It might also provide some type of soft draw, and the smoothness of the wax may also help achieve a very keen edge. The wax has always been a mystery to me as there is nothing I've found written about it, so I can only guess at it's true purpose. I have to assume there is some purpose to the wax for the manufacturer to have taken the trouble to apply it.

It's up to you, but once removed, the wax may be difficult to replace should you change your mind later.

Many Thanks. I decided against removing after seeing just how much of a pain it was to remove.

Just as a note of interest, I ended up not cleaning the leather after getting the best shave to date off of it with a W&B wedge. I'm not sure what compounds are on the leather but man-oh-man it imparts a wonderful edge.

Oh, man... that's a *Hess* strop!!! Color me chromium oxide with envy, man, that's a great catch. I'm not a bit surprised that you're getting smoooooth edges off of it at all. Finding a vintage strop in such good condition.... and getting a HESS vintage strop in such good condition.... well, most of us don't have that kinda luck.