Thread: Strop Restoration - Martin J Rubin

I've had good luck cleaning and brightening linen in a large pot of water + OxyClean. Heat the water, slowly add OC (it will bubble over if the pot is too full or the OC goes in too fast) and stir. Put in the linen strop until the water is disgusting; rinse/repeat until you're happy with the results. So far this method has, at worst, lightened nomenclature a little. If three or four treatments don't do the trick there is always some Dawn/blue and a scrub brush to try. The stuff is incredibly tough. Pat dry, flatten or hang. Iron/steam out irregularities (if any) after drying.

What they said above - go slow on the leather and don't use much oil treatment. I spent a couple of hours cleaning up an oldie a couple of weeks ago. Between a bolng the linen, a little saddle soap froth to lift the leather grunge, some very light spot sanding and a touch up with dye it came out great. Nice action and very decent appearance considering how rotten it looked when it arrived. I swear, old strops always end up looking better than I'd imagine given some time/patience.

Good luck. Post "AFTER" pix!

I wiped it down with a damp rag last night and it got pretty dark. (The surface of the leather.) I hope it lightens back up. I used just a little saddle soap on the damp rag too. As I was wiping it down, the cut was really lifting up, almost like its delaminating from the top surface. My initial gut feeling is that I will be able to lift it up and apply a little rubber cement under it and then clamp it flat. I'll probably lightly sand and then begin the slow neatsfoot conditioning process. The first round of Oxi-Clean linen cleaning went really well and after just one round it actually looks pretty nice. I only lost some of the "S" in "Special Linen"

A couple of issues have come up. I am using Frielings Saddle Soap and it says to "lather up" but for the life of me I cant get any lather. It stays more like mink oil. Second, do you recommend neatsfoot or should I use a leather "conditioner". Lots of tack shops where I live so I have access to both

FWIW, I cut a flap in my Tony Miller horsehide some years ago (if you're going to drink, don't strop) and I used Contact Cement to glue it. You can't see it if you didn't know it was there.

I doubt that a clamp is going to be needed to get that flat to lay flat. lift it up and dab a little contact cement under it, let the flap down to spread the glue and then lift it back up. Allow the glue to dry to almost no tack left, then lay it down and smooth it from the back to the open edge. Wipe up any extra glue before it dries. All will be well.

P.S.
Don't oil it until the glue is set up and use the mink oil.

For cleaning the linen http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ditioning.html

One soaking in oxi clean, scrub then air dry. Followed 2 days later with a soak in Gain detergent, scrub brush then a clear water rinse. Linen wasn't very yucky so I called it DONE.

On to the leather repair. The area where there was a cut would actually fold up as if it were delaminating. Based on recommendations, I used DAP contact cement. I used a toothpick to put just a little under the flap and smoothed out with a bourbon glass. (Empty...well at least to start). I probably didn't need to, but I clamped the area with a hand clamp to insure "flattness"




After 24 hours, I used 1500 grit sandpaper to smooth out the area as smooth as possible.


And now on to "rehydrating" the strop. For this I am using neatsfoot oil. This strop is REALLY dry to the point you hear fibers cracking if you bend it at all. The last strop I did I drenched the strop in neatsfoot. This time I am going a little slower. Putting a thin coat every 12 hours orso to allow it to absorb fully.


More to come.......


*** Side note, when wiping down the strop with a damp rag, I opted to try and use saddle soap. I never got it to foam up so I have probably "stained" the center of the strop a dark color. No damage, just not as aesthetically pleasing. ***