Thread: Scratches in strop

I noticed this morning there are some scratches in my strop. I had honed a SR and put quite a good edge on it. This is not the highest quality SR.
After seeing the scratches I looked closely at the razors edge. It hits the pin when I close it, hence a nick in the edge that scratched the strop.

Will these scratches affect the strop and it's effect on my other razor?

Unless you got a little piece of something something stuck in the leather you should be just fine. I have one razor that bumps the edge of the scale, and I am very careful with that one, it has vintage ivory scales and I have been too busy or have not given fixing it a high enough priority to fix it. as a habit we should always guide our razors closed, but I have not perfected that one yet either. Strop on my friend!

I'd say run with it as long as there's nothing embedded in it, like Rezdog said. If there's a bit of raised leather, as from a tiny tear that you're concerned about you could use a very sharp knife to trim it off. Don't use sandpaper, some of the grit may stick to the leather and then you're screwed.

I've been there and done that. My strop looks like 30 miles of bad road. Course I have a few, and they don't all look like that, but the one I use the most. That is why I use it the most. It is already tore up ....... but it gets the job done. I had got Tony Miller to make one with the three components all together. I use horse 99% of the time, but used the latigo enough to put scratches in it that you can see. Course, this was my one of my very first strops, so I don't tear them up like that nowadays.



Here is one that I had laying flat on a table to apply some Kropp Strop Dressing to. Wanted to try the stuff out. My cat wanted to strop his razors and he did a heckuva job. What possessed him to jump up on that table and do that I'll never know, but his name ain't Rambunctious for nothing. A bit of fine sandpaper and some of that strop dressing and it ain't 'as good as new', but it ain't bad and it works.

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Thanks a lot fellas, I feel much better about using it now. Not that I didn't take Rez's word and have been using it since

I use a fine grit nail file and strop dressing when I scratch my strop. It works well.

It's no different than buying a new car and getting those first scratches on it. You just live with it and move on.

if you are one who can't stand it you can sand them out (same with a car too).

My 3rd strop was the Black Latigo CS 3 inch strop. I used it exclusively for 3 years, and never nicked it, luckily. But I did recall my 1st strop, a 2 inch Dovo Russian leather, which I destroyed in short order. I had a similar issue where I felt a 'bump' from the strop, felt through the blade. Now my inexperience back then meant I had to replace the strop as it looked like a dog chewed on it! I bring it up, as 3 or 4 months back I switched strops to a Kanayama #70000, and it isn't quite wide enough to avoid using some lateral movement, or x pattern as we know it. The Kanayama is a strop you need to take care with, because of its 'different' draw, and it's general uniqueness. I use what I call 'Strop Discipline' to avoid the stropping 'yips'. Simply put, for the 1st 20 or so razors, I was mechanical in my stroke, and the Kanayama is still nick free today. Most will warn against using high end strops early on in your str8t experience, and they are right, but, 'Strop Discipline' certainly gives you a better perspective of the task at hand.