Thread: Clean my strop?

I have a cheaper strop but the leather seems ok, but it has a lot of oil of some kind on it so the draw is really Intense. Anyway to clean it off and start over?

Use a flannel or clean cloth lightly dampened and rub over vigorously. Palm rub afterwards. If that isn't enough you would need to use the lather treatment. Pretty sure there is something in the library describing the lather procedure. If not a search should bring it up easily enough.

Are we talking a used strop or a new one? If it's used and it's been saturated with oil you'll never get it all out. You can try to absorb it but it will keep coming up. Depending on how bad it is you may eventually dry it out. If it's new and has been overtreated with something that may dissipate by itself. Otherwise some good leather cleaner like Bick should do the job.

I have a Latigo that had a lot of oil and cleaned it with a damp cloth, had to do that numerous times every week or two. I then cleaned it with saddle soap almost a month ago and it has been great ever since and the draw is much lighter.

Yea, depend on how much oil and why it’s on there.

I have had good luck with paper towels and some weight.

The Natural un bleached towels work best, lay the strop flat and lay the towels on the strop with a couple bricks on the towels. If you put it in the sun it will draw the oil to the surface quicker.

YMMV for a lot of reasons.

rubbing the side of a glass bottle on the strop can lessen the draw a bit. to leach some oils out of the leather you can rub a clean cloth on the strop (lay it on a table) until the cloth is oily then find a clean side of the cloth and repeat to retrieve more oil if necessary.

As others mentioned, if it is a strop that has had too much oil added, it may be impossible to fix. I have a suggestion, but want to give a disclaimer: This could ruin the strop, but it could also help remove some oil. Wipe the strop down with denatured alcohol on an absorbant cloth. Do light coats a couple of times on both sides of the leather. Let dry for several hours between alcohol coats. If the grain surface then seems dry or fragile, make a lather with saddlesoap and a sponge, then wipe it on the leather and right off. This will increase the draw and conditon the leather. Let dry overnight between saddle soap coats. Do that as needed until you have the draw you want.