Thread: How to dress my strop

Since it is a German strop, I would suggest lederhosen.

On the rare occasion I oil a strop I always do it from the back of the strop. The leather will wick the oil into the core. Any residue oil left on my hand after oiling the back of the strop I may run my hand down the front of the strop a couple times but the residual oil is very, very light.

Geeze, I was going to suggest a suit and tie...

Dressing a strop is a tricky thing, When I apply dressing to my Russian leather strop, I get particles of leather on the blade for several days after.

I use thousand island, no wait thats salad. Seriously mine seems to get a bit dry, could be the hydronic heat in the winter, so I use just some neats foot oil on my fingers and rub it into the strop when it is getting dry.

I use a touch of beeswax and Lanolin. The same stuff I make for dry skin/lips in the winter months. Neither of those ingredients will harm your steel or leather. Just don't use too much, it could make your strop too soft.

Congratulations! I just coughed my soda out my nose!

As to the strop TREATMENTS, when I bought my initial straight razor set up, the owner of the sharpening store told me when maintained the strop will darken and become slick looking. He said to used Fromm Strop Dressing every week or so. I used a cloth cut from an old t-shirt- rather than a super absorbent towel because I do not like the smell or feel and it seems a pain to wash off. The product reminds me of lanolin.

I know an old timer from farming country that used olive oil...whatever, it looked like it was working... the strop looked like mine except it was 90 years old.

Last, in L. Sherman Trusty's "Barber Science In A Nutshell" , he tells how to break and maintain a strop using lather. Breaking in; Pile lather on leather thats resting on a hard level surface, and rub a bottle back and forth vigorously. Repeat. Pile lather on overnight. Maintaining he says to pile thick lather on at the end of every day.

I have noticed the strop is much more effective when it looks moist and shiny becoming less so as it dries out.

How everyone maintains the canvas side is a bigger mystery to me.

Nick/Las Vegas

[QUOTE=nun2sharp;722911]I dress mine in high heels, a wig and makeup. But thats just me.

Not that there's anything wrong with that . . . . . .

What a great thread: helpful info and outrageous humor, all rolled up in one!

As someone who understands something about making leather from the skins of animals, I primarily use NFO and sometimes tallow (venison, the same as i use in my soap) on my very old strop. I have a jar of "strop dressing" but it appears to be nothing special-something like sno-seal.

NFO is handy for the strop, oiling the blades, and lubricating patches for my rifle. get the 100%.

Originally Posted by jtepper

Hey guys,

Question, how would i go about dressing my strop, i have a German Dovo Feinstes Kern-Juchten strop, and i bought Fromm strop dressing, i looked at the wiki article here on the forum, and it confused me because i don't have a dry strop dressing. What are your suggestions? Thank you very much.

-Josh

I just posted in the Strop forum on Fromm Strop Conditioner. FWIW, Phil from the Classic Edge recommends a treatment of Fromm SC for new Illinois #827 strops. I used it about two days per instructions. It's like a cream, use a soft cloth and use circular motions to rub it in thoroughly.

Here it's extremely dry right now with the -10 temps, so palm rubbing just wasn't cutting it with my other two strops, they were very dry and almost felt brittle. I put some Fromm on my other two strops, and the strops literally drank it up. Two applications later, the strops are nice and supple again and are giving some draw.

The Illinois #827 strop needs to be treated according to Classic Edge, so for me that was a given. Other two strops, have never used conditioner before, and it seemed to do wonders for the other two....YMMV!