Thread: Strop maintenance

A friend has a Cyril R Salter linen and leather strop. According to the instruction leaflet , you can increase the strops effectiveness and prolong its life by using dry soap on the linen bit. Just rub the bar against it, then work in with the side of a glass bottle.

Anyone any thoughts on this? Is this applicable to other strops?

It's applicable to linen strops that aren't pasted.

Leather strops buy a leather conditioner for. They make ones specifically for strops. Fromm has one and I believe Illinois makes one. They usually recommend a soft cloth to apply and remove excess, but most of the old-school guys I've spoken with say to just use a couple pea sized spots and rub it in with the heal of your hand in tight circles all along the strop for best results. There shouldn't be any excess. My NEW strop slurps the stuff down in a few seconds whenever I condition it. I can't imagine how easy this must be with older leather.

Neatsfoot oil applied very sparingly conditions the leather very well, but so does a regular wipe over with your palm. There's enough oil in your skin to make it worthwhile.
As for the soap, I've used a bar to clean linen before. Just rubbing it over as you mention, but then scraping it away with the edge of a steel rule. I just repeated till it came away clean.