Thread: New way to flattening strops....maybe?

So over the course of this past year I have picked up a few vintage strops including my ugly, but favorite, cordovan strop. You can get some really nice strops on the bay at a super low price. I picked one up a Russian for a mere 7 dollars cause it looked like a dog and turned out to be wonderful. One thing that alluded me was how to get those old gals flat as the day they were made. I had done my research on SRP and come back with 3 options: Bottle and lather (mostly for conditioning/burnishing), clamped by heavy books to a flat area for several days, and finally a heavy handed soak for last resort strops. I got decent results with the lathering and clamping process but a perfect flat strop eluded me.....until a few days ago. I feel like a dunce for never bothering to think "Hey, there are probably lots of other people who need to flatten leather besides wet shavers" I hit up Google and found a little article involving an iron, press cloth, and leather...But could it work for me? I took my cheapest vintage strop to town and SUCCESS!!!! I will link the article vs. trying to rewrite it here....BE WARNED High heat could greatly damage your strop and be sure it is adequately moisturized prior to this procedure. The strops I used had already been well conditioned so don't try it with a piece of jerky!!!! It is better to go slow and do it a couple rounds then overheat doing it in one attempt.

QueryHorse – Flattening Curled Leather

I have had a lot of tack and a few strops. I would always try to recondition the leather and flatten it before applying any heat. Adding the moisture back will make it supple enough to flatten later in most cases. If the leather has cracks in it then it is most certainly to dry and heat will only make it worse.
Don't get me wrong, you did good and got your strop straight. You just have to be darn careful heating leather. I have never had to do more than add moisture. New leather can stand a dunking in water but old leather needs some oils back in it first. Otherwise it will crack or crack more when it drys out again.