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...

I find giving the strop a good rub down with my hands before each use is enough, as the oils from your skin work into the leather.

Rubbing the strop before use also seems to increase the draw slightly and make the razor really sing over the leather

I'd only really use neatsfoot oil or the like if you're reconditioning an old strop where the leathers dried out some, or if you find that rubbing the strop with your hand alone isnt enough.

If you've got a new strop thats been made from decent leather you shouldnt have to condition it out of the box IMO.

+1 on Stubear's advice.

I regularly use palm rubbing on my two strops, that should be all you need.

The only exception to this, for the sake of discussion, was when I purchased a new Illinois #827 strop. I use this along with my superb SRD 3" Roo Strop, I added the option on the Roo strop of the 100% pressed backing, very nice.

The Illinois #827 is a great beast, very heavy draw, love it, and the back is pressed fine linen, it's very hard, almost like a bumpy glass surface, it's impregnated with cerium oxide, add a nice touch to a blade.

When I purchased the strop, it was advised to condition this strop once prior to use with Fromm Strop Conditioner, which I did and it works as proscribed. This winter has been exceptionally dry, and for the #827, palm rubbing wasn't enough, it dried out a little too much, so again I applied a dime sized dollop of the conditioner and worked it in, and the strop returned very nicely.

The Roo is such a nice fine, thin layer, that I've had no trouble with it at all, palm rubbing has been more than fine to maintain it.

Cheers!

went with a good hand rub today...not sure what I changed...but stick spots were not there...might be a blade pressure issue that I'm having, but thinking that it is just a bit more of a rub prior to stropping to get it dialed