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I thought I'd post this in case any others are doing the same thing I've been doing. Leather conditioners made for purses, expensive leather clothing, etc. such as Lexol pretty much suck for keeping your strop conditioned. I'm finding better results just using saddle soap than I am using lexol. Lexol and Armor All seem to work well for the synthetic leathers I've been testing but those have more natural drag than regular leather AND they wear out faster (much faster) so far.
FUD,
Interesting results. I actually love Lexol <g>. I started using it when I found that Fromm (Illinois) Strop Dresing smelled and felt just like Lexol except it seems to have a few more solids in it. I am favoring Neat's Foot Oil even more now days though.
I do think one needs to find one product and stick with it on a strop as often switching from one conditioner to another on the same strop with each new dressing may give you some odd results. Some leathers need far more conditioning than others.
Tony
My favorite is Bick. I find its far better than lexol which still has a petrolium distillate make-up to it. Bick is ph balanced to that of the leather and has more of a vinnagar smell to it. Its great stuff.
I would think saddle soap would tend to dry out the leather.
I use some English tack cleaner for cleaning the strop and mink oil for conditioning it. Actually it was funny. Went to a saddlery with a friend who is a riding instructor and horse broker, she didn't buy anything and I did. I think I mentioned somewhere that I need help :D
If you can find it, try Probert's Leather Treatment - I learned of it from a shoe shine expert in Denver. After using it on my shoes, I had the guy restore a leather flight jacket with it - the jacket came back looking like new.
Tom
What I'm finding with lexol is that the strop is losing it's drag rather quickly. I just treated the strop I'm using lexol on a few days ago and already It's got almost zero drag. This wasn't a simple wiping either. I massaged lexol into the strop for 2 hours straight, refreshing the cloth with lexol repeatedly.
I firmly believe in keeping to a single product when viable but I need something that will keep the leather from losing it's drag.
I've been using nothing but saddle soap in one piece of leather I'm testing for making some spare strops for n00bs and I'm thinking of putting the hardware on this leather and making it my primary. I'd rather find something that I can switch over from lexol onto my exisiting strops though and keep this one for a give-away.
I'm glad to have this opinion now. I like Lexol, but never was sure if it was really good for strops. I cleaned up a horse shell strop with Lexol soap, and put a light coat of Lexol on it (as recommended by the manufacturer), but I finished it off (after 2 days drying time) with Fromms strop dressing. I may use something else in the future, but so far, they work fine. I might have to give the Bick's or Probert's a try, though. :)