Thread: brand new strop.....should it be treated or conditioned, and with what?

I just received my brand new strop...3x22 and wondered if I should prepare it in some way with a conditioner of some sort...please chime in with your expertise.

I have two good quality strops purchased new and never had a need to prep them with anything.

Bob

Rub it with your palm before use.

What kind of strop is it?

You can buy strop conditioner, mine is "Fromm", but I don't think you need it until it has some use on it, and looks like it's drying out. A lot probably depends on the humidity of the location where your strop is stored.

Its a Mac industries leather and felt

It is usually best to go slow and minimal with treatments of new strops. I clean leather surfaces infrequently using a clean wet then wrung out towel followed by a gentle clean dry towel wipe. This process can remove surface bleed out from tanning/dying and other accumulated crud on the leather. I lightly hand rub the surface between shaves. If a treatment such as neatsfoot oil is used, it should be very minimal and very rarely applied.

There are lots of opinions on fabric component treatments. Keep an unpasted strop for daily stropping and a separate fabric strop for each paste used if you want to try pasted strops.

Vintage strops needing restoration may need more aggressive treatments.

HTH

Originally Posted by albertaman

Its a Mac industries leather and felt

As was said above, just rub it with your hand, the oils on your skin work fine.

If you want to get together to talk shop before the meet, drop me a PM.

If it's a quality strop you don't need to do anything. Like they said the oil from your palm will do the trick. Down the road if it seems to be getting dry a little quality conditioner or neatsfoot will suffice.

Originally Posted by albertaman

Its a Mac industries leather and felt

Mac industries? Do you have a link ?