Thread: Frustration.

Here is the deal. I have a TM strop I got when I first tried a straight razor two years ago. This is totally my own doing for being abusive, but I think its ruined. Its nicked at both ends that I tried to take out with a pumace stone. Kinda worked, but not really. Now, I figured I would work the leather by rolling it and now its all wavey. Im sorry Mr. Tony Miller. Ive abused one of your lovely strops out of due ignorance. Would like to try to save it. I can get the nicks out with sandpaper next week when Im home on break, but what about the waves? My shaves are no where as good as they could be cause I abused the strop. HELP!!!

Should I try to fix the leather? How would I get rid of the waves? Or should I just get a new strop? New leather?

Not sure exactly what you mean by "wavey," that could be interpreted different ways. If the strop itself isn't flat or is curled, enough hand-rubbing while pulled taut should work that out after a few sessions.

The nicks are nothing much, just glue them and sand them out. Lots of posts about it on here.

If the waviness you mean is in the stropping surface itself, that's a bigger problem. An old barber trick to break in or restore a strop is to use lather on it (just lather, not soaked with water), then hold it taut and rub it vigorously with a glass bottle up and down the entire length. This is also done on a flat surface like a table. I haven't used lather for this, but I've used saddle soap. Same principle, both are full of good fat/oil.

Working the lather/saddle soap into the leather with the glass bottle should soften and even it up it. Wipe it down and put it on a flat surface with some newspaper over it to pull excess moisture, and then weight it down with a few books to keep it flat until it dries overnight, or a few days. Then lots of hand rubbing to finish it up, should work for you.

If none of this rescue works, Tony sells replacement strop material without hardware, that is much less expensive than buying a whole new strop. Contact Tony and he'll tell you the current price for your size and material.