Thread: Ruined strop?

Hi, I'm a newbie with lots of questions. This is the second one I've posted today.
I got one of those dovo strops with my razor. And of course it was early in the morning and I wasn't paying attention and flipped the razor before I compled my stroke (more than once) and you guessed it: now there are little nicks in the edges of my brand new ready to use $50 strop and I'm afraid I freakin ruined it.
There's not any nicks in the body of the strop just on the edges, and the leather didn't even come completely off, just kind made a flap. That wouldn't even bother me really, but I'm afraid that I might ruin the cutting edge on my razor, so I'm trying to stay off the nicks, and this reduces the stropping length to about 6 inches.
Is it fine to go over these nicks, or what?

I did the same thing when I started stropping I just removed the little flaps since they were on the edge and have been using it ever since. I may be wrong but it didn't much affect the strop, just gave me the shits

I used a pumice stone to great effect on my nicks. One was a flap as you describe and I just cut away the flap before smoothing it with the pumice stone.

X

My early mistakes weren't quite deep enough for "flaps," but I do have a bunch of hatch-marks along the edge at each end of the strop.

I knew I had improved in my stropping when (before long) I stopped adding new hatch-marks. Now they are there as a reminder to me to slow down and pay attention.

Everybody's first strop has those decorations :-)

As has been mentioned, pumice them smooth, then brush them with a dry cloth, wash with a damp cloth, then recondition with your favorite strop conditioner.

If you use the X pattern when stropping this helps prevent nicks because you've got that extra motion during the flip that tends to slow the flip down a bit.

If you don't have a strop conditioner, get some mink oil. I use it for my strops to a good effect and it's cheap. One tub of it will last forever.

Originally Posted by mparker762

Everybody's first strop has those decorations :-)

Yeah, and mine are from a 70 year old barber teaching me how to strop I have sanded mine with some 800 sandpaper, and work some strop mojo in it... The strop is fine now, and the nicks are reminder to carefully choose whose advice to follow in the future...

Nenad

Just remove the flaps and polish the areas with a pumice stone. I think everybody has a few of those on their first strop. Just remember to slow down and roll the razor over on the spline for each return trip.

As if prophetically after posting in this thread, wouldn't you know it ... my razor flipped over in my hand and put a new nick in my strop! That's the first in many many months. To make matters worse, I've just moved into my new place, but can't remember which box my pumice stone is in.

X

X,

Grats on the new place!! Hope your enjoying it so far, well at least as soon as the place gives you your pumice stone back lol.