pumice stone on a strop? really? set me straight here

I have this nice old strop I got on ebay. Shell hide, very thick and very smooth, no nicks of any note, good linen. There was a rough patch near the top, and I decided to lather it up and give it a light scrub with a pumice stone - this seeming to be conventional wisdom on how to smooth a strop. The pumice just roughs it up! Now it's more like ultrasuede, instead of glassy like the rest of the strop. I've put rubbed strop conditioner into it, taken a rolling pin to it, etc., to no avail. Does anyone have advice?

I have seen suede like strops before, Filarmonica used to sell them in the 80's. My loomstrop got some sort of suede leather on it, the same leather they use for slippers sometimes.
I find suede very easy to rub sharpening paste into. You may just want to leave it as it is.

thanks Kees - yeah I might just leave it.

But I do want to know about pumice stones and strops in general. I'll probably be buying one of Tony's red latigos, and i sure as hell don't want to turn that into ultrasuede.

Tony is a very helpful guy, great communicator.
Members who own one of his strops are unanimous that he sells great quality and has superb after sales service.

Although I never bought anything from him (I got everything I need for SR shaving) he has always answered my questions about hones. If he still sold coticules I would most likely have bought one from him by now. I am still hoping to buy an Esscher from him when he got a size that I like.

So just ask him!

The pumice is used to smooth out nicks only, AFAIK.

I'm not a pumice guy but have heard of a few people, well, one at least who did my entire red Latigo Best with a pumice. I heard it made a nice finish. The red latigo I use on my paddles is acually a stoned finish so results in an oil finished, ultra-suede feel.

While away this weekend I did see a really nice bench strop, 3" x 18" with what had to be pumiced or stones leather on it. The exaple I say was new old stock but damaged so I left it but will be making one up for myself to see how the ultra-suede type finish works.

Tony

I can't find any help files on strop conditioning - does anyone know of any?

What do you recommend for maintenance of your strops, Tony?

Mink oil or strop dressing. Both will keep your leather soft. The cons are that the strop dressing doesn't smell too nice while the mink oil will draw the red dye out of latigo and you'll have to wipe your razors after stropping for a couple of days. Your choice.

I really don't know hmuch about taking care of older strops but on new ones a little dressing every now and then is all I do. on my latigo strops I don't even do that as the leather already has oils and waxes in it and seems to hold up a long time.

I really do think people spend too much time futzing with their strops and hones. Lapping, washing, rubbing of hones, oiling, rolling, flattening, pumicing, etc... on strops. We probably put 20 years of wear on our tools evey month doing all this. Maybe they get bored and feel the need to tinker with them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it <g>

Tony

I get it, Tony. I like it when someone says stop fussing. Hell, I got into this straight razor thing for the idea of elegant simplicity.

I'm gonna buy one of your hanging strops.

Dylandog,
Yep, simplicity and saving money........that's waht we all said. Now most of us have 10-15 razors, a few strops and hones, brushes, mugs, etc....

Everytime my wife walks in the bathroom I hear "what.....did the strops have babies???"

It keeps us out of trouble....well, not financial trouble anyway <g>.

Tony

Heh, the reason we all got involved in this thing is because we like to tinker with ouf stuff. Don't spoil that for us.

Seriously though Tony is right ,as long as things work we should leave then alone. You can only tweak a car motor so much and my neighbor is always messing with his vintage mustang.

I actually tried to iron my strop today. Don't ask.

The moral of the story: if I were a better tinkerer, well then I'd proudly bill myself as a tinkerer.

My 'minimalism' is a cover story for my incompetence.

I use GOOP automotive hand cleaner on all my strops. It cleans the old ones and moisturizes the leather. It has Lanolin, sheeps wool oil, in it.

Classic shaving sells a pumice for dressing strops and hones!? I never heard of anyone on the forum they use a pumice on their hones. Any thoughts?

http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...944/196091.htm

I don't but I do use a scotchbrite pad to clean the embedded metal particles and also to give the surface a once-over after lapping.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kees

Classic shaving sells a pumice for dressing strops and hones!? I never heard of anyone on the forum they use a pumice on their hones. Any thoughts?

http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...944/196091.htm

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I use it to touch up my strop. I used it once on my hone but I didn't like the way it turned out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kees

Classic shaving sells a pumice for dressing strops and hones!? I never heard of anyone on the forum they use a pumice on their hones. Any thoughts?

http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...944/196091.htm

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I use Pumice stone to clean the metal particles from my norton hone, when the regular hand rubbling doesn't clean it any more. Rubbing with the circular motion under a thin stream of running water does the trick...

Nenad

Most any abrasive can be used to clean a hone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kees

Classic shaving sells a pumice for dressing strops and hones!? I never heard of anyone on the forum they use a pumice on their hones. Any thoughts?

http://www.classicshaving.com/catalo...944/196091.htm

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