Thread: Restoring vintage strop, improving draw

On dry boarhide, I use mink oil without silicone and a little water. Over and over.
Takes forever, but you almost cannot ruin it as you can with the neetsfoot. JMO.

So since my last post I wet the tip of an arko stick and rubbed it all over both sides of the strop and then massaged it in and let it dry.

I've since been hand stropping to kind of massage it in further. I'm very pleased with the results, it made the top leather surfaces feel just like a new strop with a nice draw.

I stropped a decent vintage razor on it and everything looks good.

Arko. It's not just for breakfast anymore!

Don't forget the "nuclear option" when you have a strop where all else fails. Soak it in hot water and really saturate it and allow it to air dry SLOWLY. As it dries start applying conditioner or you favorite oil. It won't look pretty in the end but that has saved many a strop from the dead.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Arko. It's not just for breakfast anymore!

That'll give you fresh breath.

A couple of years ago, my mom gave me her grandfather's strop (he died in the mid-1920s), which was in pretty rough shape. It had spent many decades folded in half and was really, really dirty--both the leather and the linen. But the leather was twice as thick as any of the modern strops I've had and had no nicks, and though the linen was filthy, it was otherwise intact. I didn't want to take a chance on screwing it up while trying to restore it, so I sent it to Razor Emporium; they did a great job on it. And WOW. The shaves I get with this strop are just great--better than any shaves I've gotten from modern strops. And I really like that it was my great-grandfather's. I don't have any "before" pictures, but I'll try to post some "after" shots in a day or two.