Thread: How to stretch a vintage linen

How to STRETCH a Vintage Linen

I have posted about this a couple time in old linen cleaning threads.

When you wash a vintage linen, it will shrink as much as an inch, but because of the weave you can stretch it back.

This was a nice vintage Koken Prince Royal Strop with linen in good condition but both very dirty. The linen was about a ¼ inch longer than the leather, from years of being yanked on.





I took the damp strop and put one end in a vise, I use a wooden bench vise, but any will work.

I grab the end and lean back using my body weight. It helps to measure your strop first to monitor your progress. After washing mine had shrunk about, an inch.

As you lean back you can feel the weave give a little and stretch. I hold the stretch for about 30 seconds to a minute. Then reverse the strop and stretch from the other side.

It will stretch as you have it under pressure but will bounce back some. After a few minutes it was within a ¼ inch of the leather when at rest. The linen was still damp.

I ran a hook from the top of the strop and clamped a plastic rubber coated wood clamp to the bottom attached to a loop of para cord. The cord was looped around a 6-inch piece of small gage railroad track anvil, about 3-4 pounds. I hung the whole thing from the open garage door and let it dry on a nice warm day.

. I hung the whole thing from the open garage door and let it dry on a nice warm day.

About 8 hours later it was dry except for the spot where the clamp was, and the finished length was less than a 1/8 inch shorter than the leather.

Close enough for Government work.

Got them flush again! Thanks for the tutorial. Does your rolling pom method help this type of or is that apples and oranges???

Really cool thread dude, does the linen/canvas need to be wet/damp to do this?

I will roll it when fully dry, it does soften up the linen. I haven’t tried stretching it dry, but I suspect it would because it was a quarter inch longer than the leather when I started. I figured that was from years of pulling on it. I suppose the leather could have shrunk. I will measure it to see if it picks up length.

The leather will continue to get an oil treatment, I have been re-hydrating it for a couple months now adding oil once a week and it is darker now. I have developed a system of oiling, I will post pics, that is super easy and will not over oil and the leather absorbs very well.

Once I feel it is fully hydrated and when it is damp, after wetting and oiling, I put it on the roller and that really loosens up the fibers and softens the strop.

So you do the rolling technique with leather too. This is interesting, makes me wonder about my recent strop I fixed up. How supple were the old Russian leather cerifyd strops when new. I wonder if it could be more flexible.

Yea, my daily driver, shop strop is an old ¼ inch thick, Russian Certified strop that was stiff as a yard stick.

After months of oiling, re-hydrating and rolling it is as soft and limp as a wet noodle, a super stropper. It has the diamond cut back and I strop on both sides, the front is more aggressive than the back, but both yield smooth edges.

Go easy rolling, and make sure the leather is hydrated, if you feel or hear cracking, stop and oil and hydrate more, it can easily take months to add oil. If you break the fibers, the leather can tear. Too much oil too quick and the leather will rot.

1/4 inch thick leather strop
Oh i need one! Ok, i want one.

Originally Posted by Gasman

1/4 inch thick leather strop
Oh i need one! Ok, i want one.

Some kids probably learned to fear that strop!

I would say my Russian cerifyd is at least 3/16 of an inch thick. I don’t think I’ll be doing any rolling. Just going to keep lightly hydrating and will apply ballistol in the future if it needs anything. It’s still really supple so don’t wanna risk messing up the strop or the gold leaf I just did. But still good info to keep in mind.