Thread: Strop conditioning

I'm still pretty new to the whole straight razor shaving experience guys...

I bought an Illinois 3" strop for a decent price on Amazon. It didn't come with any directions for conditioning, but it has a slight curl to it, although I leave it hanging always to try to straighten it out. What should I do? Simply give it a good coating of leather conditioner? Should I then put it in a warm oven for an hour or so like I did for my baseball glovesas a kid? Just wondering what the best method is... Thanks guys!

A few drops of neatsfoot on your hand and rub the strop down should be sufficient....rubbing the strop down before each use works fine as well because of the oils in your hands.

I also purchased an Illinois #827 from the Classic Edge, and the owner, Phil, advised that I initially condition it with a dime sized portion of Fromm Strop Conditioner, which I did and it worked out fine.

Having said that, there's a lot a differing views as to whether to condition a strop. Neatsfoot I'm sure would work fine, after that, daily rubbing the strop with your palm is all that's needed.

I live in a single digit humidity area which draws the moisture out of everything so a couple times a year my strops get the neatsfoot treatment. Otherwise if your strop looks and feels good I wouldn't do anything. if it needs a little the palm maneuver is the best thing.

More people trashed more strops conditioning them, then cutting them with an edge. Hand rub it with the palm of your hand till you think youll start a fire then rub it some more. Then youll have the perfect conditioned strop with the perfect amount of draw as well...

I learned this the hard way, and I used about a mung beans size dollop of strop dressing rubbed between two palms then applied to the strop. The strop was never the same and I just got around to replacing that component after 3 months of feeling like the strop was fighting me on every stroke.

Originally Posted by Tarkus

More people trashed more strops conditioning them, then cutting them with an edge. Hand rub it with the palm of your hand till you think youll start a fire then rub it some more. Then youll have the perfect conditioned strop with the perfect amount of draw as well...

Thanks for all the replies, guys! I'll try give it a good palm rub down later on, and see how that works out

should you give the strop a palming before or after shower? obviously you want clean hands, just wondering if after the shower has all the soap gotten rid of that oil that was in your skin?

Originally Posted by noobs

should you give the strop a palming before or after shower? obviously you want clean hands, just wondering if after the shower has all the soap gotten rid of that oil that was in your skin?

Thats an interesting question since you would want clean hands obviously but you would want to keep a bit of the natural oils on your skin as well.

Then, of course, there is always the "Ace" method: Lather the crap out of it!