Restoring lettering on leather strops.

Has anyone had any luck restoring the gold lettering on vintage strops? If so what did you do?

Slawman

If the embossing is deep and strong I fill it in with gold run-n-buff. Let it dry and lightly sand off excess with 1000 to 2000 grit sandpaper.

Great question, I have thought about that myself. I though of painting on sizing and applying gold leaf, but apparently, Gold Foil is the way to go.

There are videos of bookbinders stamping gold foil lettering and designs with heat stamps. It looks like it does not take a lot of heat or time in the press to make it stick and emboss.

Here is an interesting video of a bookbinder gold foil embossing leather.
Beginner’s Guide to Hot Foil Stamping.

Here is an interesting video gold foil embossing on paper. She is using embossing powder (powdered glue) with sizing that is stamped on, (for the lettering and design) she sets the sizing with a heat gun, then applies the gold foil and runs it through a heat laminating machine.
Foil and Stamping

You could not just use an iron. At the end of the video she runs her fingernail across the gold lettering to demonstrate the smoothness and the durability of the embossed foil.

While she stamped the sizing, You, could paint the sizing on with a brush or apply with a felt pen, in place of stamping. Then sprinkle with embossing powder, remove excess, heat with a heat gun, then apply foil over heated powder.

Here is a video doing just that, on paper. He explains the process in more detail.
Tim Holtz demos 3 Texture Pastes from Ranger

You are correct gold stamping does not require high heat. It works odd a ribbon or gold or silver foil. Only problem is you need the male stamp to match female impression on vintage Strop. Getting accurate registration could be tricky.

Not if you use the embossing powder, just apply sizing, powder then the foil. Burnish with a finger and remove the excess.

In the video they use ink in place of sizing.

Interesting...:thinking:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BorDO0eB_dI/

I've done it here, it's very basic. I just apply some gold color used for those Revell models, then lightly sand off the excess. Could be a lot better than this with a little effort.

Sorry linked the wrong video, here it the link to the embossing Gold Foil.

Notice how much embossing powder (Glue) is used, the stamp ink is only used to hold the powder in place until you heat the powder to turn into glue.

I did not buy the sheets he is demonstrating, they did not have the color I wanted, a bright gold. I bought a roll 12 X18, I think for about $6.

Here is the right Video, Tim Holtz Embossing Gold Foil.

Hey there, I just gilded the lettering on my vintage strop a couple of weeks ago, here's the link https://sharprazorpalace.com/strops/...w-goodies.html. Albeit I did go a little over board and get real 24k gold leaf, but I think it came out really good. There's a few spots where I was like 'meh', but sometimes you just have to leave good enough alone. You don't need to get the real leaf to get an amazing end result. I am by no means an expert on anything, but if you have any questions regarding how I did my strop please feel free to shoot me a PM.