Thread: How to dress my strop

Most strops, made of quality leather require nothing more than an occasional rub with the palm of your unwashed hand. I say "Unwashed" because you want the natural oils from your hand. Some guys like to use strop dressings, neetsfoot oil, Ballistol, etc.
It's up to you, but it is not necessary. If you choose to do so, use very little, it's easy to go overboard. I've never done it myself to any of my strops, Maybe some of the other's will chime in....

Originally Posted by zib

Most strops, made of quality leather require nothing more than an occasional rub with the palm of your unwashed hand. I say "Unwashed" because you want the natural oils from your hand.

Just make sure that your unwashed hand doesn't have any grease , dirt , or anything else on it that would damage your strop .

Put one pea sized drop of the Fromm strop dressing in your hand. Rub it around in your palm/fingers and then apply it to the back side of the leather strop. This will tell you just how dry the leather is and give you an idea how much to use on the front of the strop. Be very conservative in use and allow at least one day between applications. The dressing does soak in and spread.

Please understand that I am not saying to saturate the leather. I will speculate that 2 pea sized drops would be enough for the front side of the strop. I use neatsfoot oil on my strops and use considerably more than that when I first apply the oil. Some leathers are really dry.

Hope this helps,

I use Fromm dressing. Just put a bit on your fingers, and rub it into the strop. Not too much -- it's easier to add more, than to take it off.

I'd ignore the reverse side.

Charles

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.