Thread: Pumice stone for resurfacing?

Originally Posted by marosell

niftyshaving: There are a couple places where a drop of water hit it. I tried to wipe it dry ASAP, but there are a few places where it looks "raised" because of a water droplet.

......

I am glad I asked.

A drop of water should not hurt the leather and
justify a serious resurface.

Visit a shoemaker or Tandy and get some advice and
a chunk of leather to play with.... first.

In general you can soak leather in water and apply some leather
tooling tools to put your name in the top or bottom inch or so.

When it is wet rub it and buff it flat... you can even color it with tea.
If you rub the surface with the flat of a spoon when wet you can even
up a lot of imperfections.

When it is dry rub one drop of needs foot oil on your hand
then run your hand a dozen laps on the strop. Do that a
couple of times and it will soon be fine.

Well what about soaking the whole thing in some water and giving it a good hand massage and letting it dry out?

I will add some neats foot oil tomorrow and let you know how it turns out.

By the way, how do leather makers give it that shiny polished look? The reverse side is a very rough suede, it amazes me that they could get the other side so smooth.

If I'm not mistaken that is the top grain of the cow or the horse's hide. IOW, they don't make it that way, it is that way. Once it is roughed up there is no making it smooth again. At least not the way it was..... I may be wrong, I was wrong twice before.

One other thing in regard to wetting the strop.... here is a post by JimR with the maker of the Kanayama strop giving his instructions for care. I don't know if this applies to all strops but it is something to consider. Better safe than sorry.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

One other thing in regard to wetting the strop.... here is a post by JimR with the maker of the Kanayama strop giving his instructions for care. I don't know if this applies to all strops but it is something to consider. Better safe than sorry.

Excellent add to this thread.

The link by JimR is a good one....

I've made a number of strops and I've made two using the Tandy leather you mentioned. On both of them I ended up using 220 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper (used dry) to get rid of the glassy surface. One I left as it was, the other I put neatsfoot oil on. Both worked well. Perhaps the slick, un-sanded surface would work well enough; because, as has been pointed out, some of the old barber strops were quite hard and slick. I have a couple that are like glass. But I prefer a bit more draw which is why I sand the surface of the strops that I make out of natural leather. The strops I make from latigo work well without any surface treatment.

Originally Posted by sffone

I've made a number of strops and I've made two using the Tandy leather you mentioned. On both of them I ended up using 220 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper (used dry) to get rid of the glassy surface. One I left as it was, the other I put neatsfoot oil on. Both worked well. Perhaps the slick, un-sanded surface would work well enough; because, as has been pointed out, some of the old barber strops were quite hard and slick. I have a couple that are like glass. But I prefer a bit more draw which is why I sand the surface of the strops that I make out of natural leather. The strops I make from latigo work well without any surface treatment.

Some time ago Tony Miller was experimenting with a rough or maybe it was a scuffed surface on the horsehide strops. He carried them as an alternative item for awhile and then discontinued them. Keith from HandAmerican has also sold a two component strop with one smooth side and the other rough. I have one but I'm not that crazy about the rough side.