Thread: NOS strops with wax-saturated fabric

My first Hoffritz strop was like that in 1980 or so. the razor just zipped down it (and it was only about 14"). Finally cut the leather so badly that I threw it away, when I found SRP.

Originally Posted by 32t

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...do-i-do-6.html

I would probably just keep staring at if for a while

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Has anyone seen this?

Only in Texas ............

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Only in Texas ............

HEY! I resemble that remark!

Big thanks to 32t for that thread! Boy, THAT one got off-topic, eh?
So wax was added as an advantage! Glad I got the most of it off, however. No Like!
Still some there, it can be seen and felt. Hopefully it is just right now!

Originally Posted by sharptonn

HEY! I resemble that remark!

Kidding aside, I was watching Antiques Roadshow one night and a guy brought a strop over to the expert.

The expert said the strop was very rare and sought after by collectors. Originally came with a wax treated linen, and worth maybe $10,000 at auction. But since somebody had boiled the linen, removed the wax, it was only worth $3.98 ........

Nice!

Love this place. I could spends hours and hours reading about stuff like this!

Very nice find!! Nothing like vintage NOS leather and linen!

Here is another I have done, with pictures. Similar to the strop in the OP, this one is a PJM CMon.
The wax was dirty and cracking on the surface of the fabric.



So I put it on to boil, skimming the wax off the top as best I could. Let it boil for 20 minutes and took it out and scraped the wax off with a spatula. Changed the water and repeated 3 times. The last time, I tossed some bleach and Oxyclean in, just for fun.



While the fabric was boiling, I treated the leather with Bick leather conditioner and did a lot of hand-rubbing on it.
Got a LOT of wax off!



Turned out quite nice. I lost the Logo, but since it had been applied over the wax, I was fine with that. Still some wax in it, but at least it strops nicely and looks a ton better.
(Before and after)



Got it back together and clothed it with a Razorfeld strop cover. Nice!



I have another one with the wax, but it is smooth and clean, so I will let it be.

Did you maybe think of putting the wax soaked strop on a pile of newspaper, cover it with a cloth and start running a hot iron over the surface? That should melt the wax off somewhat and be absorbed by the newspaper.