Thread: What should I do with the back of my leather strop?

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

The backside is the unfinished side,do nothing with it.

Really? I'd read here that lots of people pasted the back side of the leather? Mind you, I used an old strop I don't use anymore just in case...is it because it could seep through to the other side and contaminate the strop?

Originally Posted by Phrank

Really? I'd read here that lots of people pasted the back side of the leather? Mind you, I used an old strop I don't use anymore just in case...is it because it could seep through to the other side and contaminate the strop?

Lots of people do lots of stuff YMMV

My ways are not for every body. That's starkly apparent from my preference for hand tools over power tools. Though I have some power tools, they languish. Pastes for me were messy, difficult to control the cross contamination and the edges produced thereof were not to my liking. I must admit that some of the edges were extremely sharp. However, gone are the days of struggling over which paste to use on what surface, searches for the perfect snake oil strop treatment and toiling to find a better way than I already had in my possession. I focused my energies on learning to use natural stones, natural clean linen or cotton and natural clean animal hide. My stones come from Belgium, my horse hide comes from Norway, my cow hide comes from Maryland and my honing solution comes from the clean cool running of the faucet, that'd be in Germany at present. I get delightful shaves daily and have fun doing so. Nowadays, I find myself experimenting with a number of different shave brushes and a couple soaps I like.

Aint guy stuff great! Again, this is my preference. It is your guy stuff, experiment if you wish. You may like it. If not, try what works for me. I like it.

Respectfully

Chasmo

It shouldn't ever seep though the strop but abrasive could build up in the fibers. Not really an issue, there will just be excess abrasive towards the ends of the strop. The main issue IMO is turning the fuzzy side smooth. if it doesn't feel like suede I would smooth it out first.