I recently tried dressing my strop, or rather conditioning it with saddle soap, is this good or bad. What type of dressing would be effective for optimal stropping without anuy of those fancy gels?
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I recently tried dressing my strop, or rather conditioning it with saddle soap, is this good or bad. What type of dressing would be effective for optimal stropping without anuy of those fancy gels?
Saddle soap is more for cleaning. I heard a 50/50 mix of glycerin and lanolin should do the trick. Neatsfoot oil and mink oil should also be ok but use small amounts and let it sit for a day before using the strop.
If you have a Dovo Kern-Juchten (Russian) strop, only apply the dovo yellow strop dressing. It looks and feels like vaseline but it's not and comes in small tubes, like toothpaste does. You can preliminary dress with the Fromm strop dressing fluid but don't use too much on it, the same as the dovo dressing, little goes a long way. In truth a new Dovo strop needs no dressing but after using it for a few weeks you may want to increase its draw buy using the Fromm followed by the Dovo yellow, letting the strop dry (rest) between applications.
I would not recomend using mink oil or neatsfoot oil on a Dovo unless it is very old and tired.
You will know when its absorbed the right mount of dressing by the draw you get from it. When applying the Fromm dressing, flood a soft cloth and cover the whole strop as fast as possible, let it sit then wipe off excess and finish by massage with the palm of your hand. This way you will not get water type markes on the strop from too much fluid being absorbed by the leather in the place you first applied the dressing.
PuFF