Thread: NOS strops with wax-saturated fabric

I recently bought some NOS vintage strops. I am fairly certain they were salesman's samples.
Nice strops, obviously unused and stored decently.

However, on a few, the fabric component was strange. very stiff and seemingly saturated with wax. You could bend the strop and it would stay bent! I had never seen this before, did not like stropping on them either.

I decided to attempt to remove it so I took the fabric off this PJM Merit and rolled it into a saucepan with water which I brought to a boil. The wax would melt and come to the top so I began trying to skim it off. I was making such a mess, I took it from the pot and laid it flat and scraped it with a spatula. LOTS of wax was coming off that way.

Changed the water and repeated several times and finally got the bulk of it out, about a half-cup, in my estimate.

Now, it looks and feels right. Has anyone seen this?

I've got a few strops like that. I figured the makers knew what they were doing so I left them as is/was. It IS really weird to strop on a surface like that, but it does not seem to do any harm.

I figured it would do no harm, yet was like stropping on a fence-board.

Another few have something about being 'damp-proof' on them. Some sort of gimmick, I suppose?

Congratulations. You made a very nice find.

Maybe the wax is supposed to keep it from fraying so bad if it gets nicked with the razor. I have another theory that the wax canvas (if it is waxed canvas) was suppose to be a tow strap or something and someone used it to make a strop. lol

How does age effect wax? I wonder if they were not more flexible when they were new.

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!