Thread: wrinkles in strop

There's a small patch of wrinkles on my strop that happened as a result of shipping from the vendor. I spoke with the vendor about it and he sent me a replacement piece of leather for my strop. The replacement came in the mail today and is in even worse shape with not only more smaller wrinkles but a bunch of larger waves throughout the length of the strop...the edges are kind of beat up in some places as well.

Is there anything that I can do to smooth the wrinkles and waves out so that I have a smooth stropping surface?
What should I do? I'd really prefer not to email Larry back and tell him that there's a problem with the replacement that he sent me...
What do you guys recommend?

From the sound of it, I would not put my razors on that strop.
Honestly, that is pretty much the most important factor of any strop.
Any chance you could post a pic or two of it?

Don't know about the little wrinkles but with the "waves" have you tried any standard break in techniques to smooth it out? Kinda just shooting in the dark here with out any pictures..

The surface grain got stretched from being bent too much.
I don't know of a way to bring it back to what it was, but there are some things you can do to make it usable:

You can sand the surface down. It doesn't take much; start with about 200 grit and work up. Starting with a lower grit will leave scratches that will be very difficult to get out.

You could also oil the surface and burnish it. Put some neetsfoot oil on the surface of the strop and pull it back and forth over the edge of your car window several times. Use some pressure.
I don't have a pic, but I'll try to explain a little better:
Open the car door and roll the window down a little over half way. Oil the surface of the strop and then hang the strop over the edge of the glass with the stropping surface against the edge of the glass. Now grab both ends of the strop and pull down fairly hard while you run it back and forth over the glass. I've done a lot of experimenting, and this is the best method, using stuff that most people have available, I've found for smoothing out strop surfaces.

This is spot on the strop when I first got it.



Here are some pics of the replacement piece. I tried to capture the spots as best I could. It came rolled smooth side out.

The second one wasn't damaged by being rolled improperly. I'd send that one back.

Originally Posted by HNSB

The second one wasn't damaged by being rolled improperly. I'd send that one back.

Is it that badly damaged?

It will take a fair amount of time to fix and you'll lose the top surface.
With sanding and burnishing you can get a decent surface on it, but it won't quite be the same as the surface from the tannery.

Originally Posted by HNSB

It will take a fair amount of time to fix and you'll lose the top surface.
With sanding and burnishing you can get a decent surface on it, but it won't quite be the same as the surface from the tannery.

I'll have to email Larry and see what he says.

It won't do you any good with this particular strop, but you should realize that for what you pay Larry, he can only sell you this kind of stuff. For now, the best thing to do imo is to toss it, and buy a product from a vendor, any vendor, who sells decent strops at a realistic price.

Any strop for that amount of money will never be better than what you show in the pics. A simple strip of decent leather alone will be more expensive than what you paid for that strop.