Thread: Neatsfoot oil on a new strop?

Hey folks!
I got a nice new strop for xmas this year. It is not coloured in any way, kind of an Ivory colour, I've just been rubbing with my palm. 3 questions arise from this. First, will neatsfoot oil change the colour much, especially if i don't get it rubbed in evenly? second is it necessary to use the oil, or should new strops get a little douse out of the box? and third, it has diamond spray on the back, will that eventually effect that?
Thanks!

Personally I never treat my leather strops just wipe with my Palm each morning. I'd guess if you used oil being a light colour it would change it. The diamond shouldn't penetrate to the front but make sure you wipe the blade before using the front of the strop.
Again my personal preference is to keep treated strops separate to completely avoid cross contamination.
As an aside Alastair at Westholme Razor Strops just made me a superb linen strop that I'll use with Cr Ox.

A brand new strop shouldn't need any treatment for years. And when the time does come say in about 4-5 years, You would use 1 drop of neatsfoot, any more and you will probably trash the strop. AS far as changing the color Its safe to assume that when you would put an oil on anything the color would go darker.
Stick with the palm rubbing that's all you will need for years & years to come.

noobs,

Tarkus is correct. All a new strop needs — a quality strop — is daily rubbing with the palms of your hands, before you take your shower, that is.

The addition of any oil will not be needed for many years. However, your strop can benefit from the occasional cleaning and addition of moisture.

Maybe two or three times a year I dip half of a washcloth into water, wring it out, and then wipe the front of the strop with it a couple of times. After 15-20 minutes I wipe it repeatedly with a clean dry cloth.

The most oil I put on a strop at one time, if I feel it's REALLY dry, is as much as I get by rubbing it across my forehead before the morning's ablutions. Don't do this with the diamond side or you'll be all twinkly and people will wonder.

Originally Posted by petecold

check this out on e bay horween strop needs nothing

Please don't hawk your stuff here.

And again, no decent new strop needs anything.

I aint hawking owt mate. you are not giving good advice
some leathers need treatment usually neetsfoot. but of course you seem to know better.
I will bow to your superior knowledge we are a bit backward in the uk it looks like I have been giving my friends poor advice for the last 50 years.
conversation closed....

Originally Posted by petecold

I aint hawking owt mate. you are not giving good advice
some leathers need treatment usually neetsfoot. but of course you seem to know better.
I will bow to your superior knowledge we are a bit backward in the uk it looks like I have been giving my friends poor advice for the last 50 years.
conversation closed....

You are welcome to close your part of the conversation, but I agreed to no such thing.

I know several intelligent people in the UK. If you don't choose to be one of them that is no concern of mine. However, the ebay strop you twice posted in this thread had absolutely no relevance to the topic of this discussion. You have posted that you make strops. Your username includes the name Pete, as did the eBay username for the strop seller. Both you and that seller are from the UK. If you are not the same person, then I apologize for that mistake; but that still does not explain why you tossed a couple eBay listings into this thread.

I completely agree that some leathers need treatment. If you read post #7, you will see that I have done it myself on old strops, but the post by the OP stated that his was a new strop. I am not aware of any new strop made of any sort of decent leather that would have a need for neatsfoot oil at the time of purchase.

We can all agree to disagree but keep it respectful. My opinion is this and it is mine only. I will give an example - Nice Tony Miller fast bridle 3" strop. Wonderful strop and I used it for a year then it seemed to dry out ( yes I rubbed it with my palm every day) Now even though it seemed dry ( or slick) it worked but I really like a heavy draw and it seemed to lose that. I applied light coats of neats foot oil several times and it is like new and has been for a couple months. It did not change color but it was already a dark cognac color. When I put it on my SRD cheaper natural colored strop it darkened it a bit. Still work fine however. The moral of this story should be - we all have different ways to prep, soaps, cremes, blades etc but whatever works for you is ok. It may not work for the next person and it does not have too. I love to read threads where people do things different than I do but if they are opinionated and their way is the only way, I tune it out