Thread: Question Concerning Different Colored Strops: Latigo, Bridle...

Sometimes strops are pasted with red and black Solingen crayons for sharpening purposes, an assumption on my part here being that this is charging the strops with red and black ferric oxide pigment, also used for the same purpose in some circles.

Following this, I am wondering about the impact that, say, a red or black Latigo strop might have over a "natural" treated strop relative to the dye or pigments being employed. Would the red or black strop be inherently more aggressive? And beyond this, what about the sharpening impact of various shoe polish preparations for treating old worn strops?

[Edit: if a Mod could correct the typo in the title, I would appreciate it.]

Modern latigo is a chromium tanned leather infused with oils and waxes and dye and then veg. tanned. Therefore making it more supple with the dye going completely through the thickness. The color means nothing other then that, color. Natural colored leather is veg. or mineral tanned. color maybe added during the tanning or after. Once again the color is just a dye.

The paste your referring to is just that, paste which you can buy separately and add to any stropping material.

Thank you for the explanation. If the color is just a dye, than it would differ from a pigment, I will suppose. Same holds true for shoe polish? Dyes and not pigments?

Oh My! What are we speaking of?
Lots of pigments are indeed abrasive to a degree. I suppose lots are not.
Down the rabbit hole we go?

We are talking Latigo. All leather is dyed during the tanning process (if colored at all) and then some leathers have a pigment added to the surface which will scratch off. Hence the shoe polish. I don't know about shoe polish but I would suspect that liquid would be a dye and paste would carry a pigment in the wax.
Unless of course you have shoes/strops made of Horween leather in which case this more resembles a latigo tanning process. And is why it is soooo expensive. Not only prime leather but fine a tanning process. There is no need to add polish to latigo or Horween. You can buff the scratch back to a shiny state and the color is still there. Come on Tom, you saw the video I am sure :<0)

If you cut a piece of latigo you will see the same color inside. White latigo is bleached before coloring. Yellow latigo is my favorite.
Dye molecules are very very small and will migrate in leather. Put some red latigo splint boots on a white horse and after the ride your horse will have pink socks. Like Tom's favorite "going to church" pair.

Come to think of it leather is hard to dye after it has been tanned and it does rub or wear off rather quickly. One trick is to rub the leather down with denatured alcohol first to open the grain. You won't get that advice from Tandy though :<0) So, the shoe polish may very well be a pigment.

The color of a dyed leather strop will not affect its performance, with paste.

There are however, much better paste options, than Red or Black Solingen paste, depending on what you are trying to achieve. There are also better substrates, than a quality leather strop, especially if you are experimenting.

Experiment with a 3 in wide strip, of cardboard, inside of a cereal box, once you find a paste that does what you want, then paste a dedicated strop, Nylon, Polyester, Canvas and paper make great dedicated pasted strops, as does veg tanned leather.