Neatsfoot Oil, do you use it?

Just discovered neatsfootoil, I've always just rubbed the palm of my hand on the strop ever day or two to keep the leather soft and supple. But what i noticed is sometimes my strop would feel gummy after a rub down, and while rubbing i could feel skin exfoliating off my palm. The gumminess on the strop strop was creating to much friction, and i felt like it was requiring two much force to keep the razor moving on the strop, or caused my stroke to not be smooth.

After a couple times wiping down my strop with neatsfoot oil, ive noticed much smoother action on my strop.

What do you guys think about it?

I have been using neat afoot oil for years and from what I understand from your post you may want to use some saddle soap on that strop one of these days, it will clean the leather of all the old shave soap residue from the blade as well as the excess oil from your hands that may be drawing dust from the air possibly causing the "gumminess" you referred to.

Another way to clean it is to wet a cloth with water, wring it out, wipe the strop a couple of times, wait 10 to 20 seconds, and then wipe it with a dry cloth. This both cleans and adds moisture to the strop.

Daekkon,

For 'rubbing down' strops, I have found textured micro-fibre cloths work very well indeed. (I get mine from the local supermarket for ca 9 USD for 5 cloths)

Have fun :)

Best regards

Russ

Saddle soap and neatsfoot oil are what I use for major maintenance. Try the grease of your nose before stropping. I learnt that trick from a jeweller. He used to rub freshly polished stones on his nose for a shine. For a small paddle strop it is all you need.

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Originally Posted by Utopian

Another way to clean it is to wet a cloth with water, wring it out, wipe the strop a couple of times, wait 10 to 20 seconds, and then wipe it with a dry cloth. This both cleans and adds moisture to the strop.

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+1

Here is a pretty good article on leather maintenance. My cobbler gave it to me.

Leather Preservation for new leather

Great article! Thanks for sharing.

I sometimes feel that what is best for the leather is at odds with my preferred stropping surface. I am experimenting with adding oils in very small quantities in order to find a happy compromise and possibly get the best of both.

I use Neetsfoot oil quite often on Horn Scales for reconditioning, but never liked the results on a Strop

Note: Real "Neetsfoot oil" is a little harder to find nowdays the watchword is "Compound" if it says Neetsfoot oil compound, move on

When I used it on a strop I always just put a little on my hand and rubbed as normal, I never applied it directly to the strop.. I was told years back that it could breakdown the fibers if you used to much of it :shrug:

I use the damp cloth routine maybe every 6 months, and maybe once a year use the Lather routine, that seems to work for me and I like the draw that comes with it

Does the oil eventually foul your blade, or affect it adversely at all?

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Originally Posted by Clientkill

Does the oil eventually foul your blade, or affect it adversely at all?

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Oil has always increased the draw for me. The oil itself should not do any harm to the blade, I've always felt that cleaner leather fibers had more effect on the edge. YMMV

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Originally Posted by Clientkill

Does the oil eventually foul your blade, or affect it adversely at all?

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It is not the blade but the leather that suffers from over use of oil.

I use it. The pure stuff from a leather shop. Tandy Leather has the pure stuff. I hear what the other members are saying about to use sparingly. I went the other direction. I used a 1/4 cup on a Big Daddy strop. It did reduce the draw considerably . It has been over 6 months. Not sure how long its supposed to take before my strop breaks down, but as of now it works like a champ.

Leather is all about time. Years of it. Too much oil will deteriorate leather just like too dry. Tandy has both kinds of NeatsFoot oil if you look at the bottles. I use liquid Glycerin to clean all leather. Most of it is a compound with things added to condition the leather for longer life. Use Neatsfoot sparingly and some of you may have an allergic reaction to it. It comes from oil in the bones of Cows. God put it there to keep their legs from freezing off in the winter. It's the only thing that saves them really. It can be good for a dry strop but best if only a few drops are spread over the whole surface. Some of the advice I have read from the old timers around here is apply it to the back of the strop. What does that tell ya ?

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Originally Posted by 10Pups

Leather is all about time. Years of it. Too much oil will deteriorate leather just like too dry. Tandy has both kinds of NeatsFoot oil if you look at the bottles. I use liquid Glycerin to clean all leather. Most of it is a compound with things added to condition the leather for longer life. Use Neatsfoot sparingly and some of you may have an allergic reaction to it. It comes from oil in the bones of Cows. God put it there to keep their legs from freezing off in the winter. It's the only thing that saves them really. It can be good for a dry strop but best if only a few drops are spread over the whole surface. Some of the advice I have read from the old timers around here is apply it to the back of the strop. What does that tell ya ?

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That some people do stuff backwards??? Current poster included

Over 40 yrs in leather work, the honorable hidestoart has rolled his own oil treatment. 'Tried some of the leather treatments from the local leather shop. None soaked into the shell strop - until I tried his. You'd have thought it was dying of thirst. He won't say what all is in it, except for some anti-mold or mildew stuff. It works beautifully. We traded blade for a leather burnishing tool that has been fabulous for keeping the surface smooth. One of his gorgeous strops (Horse butt) is my daily driver, and the best strop I own. I am biased. I think he's wonderful. I suspect others will form a similar impression.

Neatsfoot oil works well; use very sparingly!

I prefer to treat my strops with pure carnauba wax.

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Originally Posted by pinklather

Over 40 yrs in leather work, the honorable hidestoart has rolled his own oil treatment. 'Tried some of the leather treatments from the local leather shop. None soaked into the shell strop - until I tried his. You'd have thought it was dying of thirst. He won't say what all is in it, except for some anti-mold or mildew stuff. It works beautifully. We traded blade for a leather burnishing tool that has been fabulous for keeping the surface smooth. One of his gorgeous strops (Horse butt) is my daily driver, and the best strop I own. I am biased. I think he's wonderful. I suspect others will form a similar impression.

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That is important. Over use of oil will cause the leather to rot from the inside out.

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Originally Posted by ultrasoundguy2003

I use it. The pure stuff from a leather shop. Tandy Leather has the pure stuff. I hear what the other members are saying about to use sparingly. I went the other direction. I used a 1/4 cup on a Big Daddy strop. It did reduce the draw considerably . It has been over 6 months. Not sure how long its supposed to take before my strop breaks down, but as of now it works like a champ.

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That is a good question.
A one time application, IME, would not rot the leather. But, repeated use of heavy oil application, would, based on what I've read, destroy the leather.

Use of oil allows the fibers to move easily. But, the water moisture is also needed. It is a fine line to walk.;)

I have used mineral oil to clean my horse butt strop. It makes it slicker. The mineral oil I use is a non-oxidizing light mineral oil made for food prep, but any vet supply mineral oil should be fine.

In the past on other strops, I used some strop dressing or some such thing, but it was a mess. I use mineral oil only because it helps to wipe down the surface of the strop and in several years, I have never found it to harm anything. Neatsfoot is what my dad always used on baseball gloves, and it might be a bit safer than mineral oil (horse butt is cheap for me, it costs about $10 in butt strip to make a strop that will last a decade of use - I don't have much risk in using mineral oil on it).

The oldtime barbers had a strop hanging from the chair and used it over and over every day. Eventually the strop darkened and developed a patina to it and about the only thing barbers used was the oil from their hands or a drop or two of neatsfoot every now and then. Those strops lasted forever. Less is more I say.

I think like everything else we do here we over analyze things and we're like the guy who buys a new car and is out every month re waxing the car and looking for the latest and greatest wax or cleaner or preservative. These things are meant to age as long as it's not abused. That doesn't mean they don't still perform like new.

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

I use Neetsfoot oil quite often on Horn Scales for reconditioning, but never liked the results on a Strop

Note: Real "Neetsfoot oil" is a little harder to find nowdays the watchword is "Compound" if it says Neetsfoot oil compound, move on

When I used it on a strop I always just put a little on my hand and rubbed as normal, I never applied it directly to the strop.. I was told years back that it could breakdown the fibers if you used to much of it :shrug:

I use the damp cloth routine maybe every 6 months, and maybe once a year use the Lather routine, that seems to work for me and I like the draw that comes with it

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The stuff i got was 100% pure neatsfoot oil. Coastal sells it for saddle maintence. Its working really well on my english briddle leather and my latigo strop.

Deffinitly improved the action on my strops