Thread: Kanayama Cordovan Strop 90000 - Not the quality it used to be

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Something looks strange at the top clamp in the 2nd picture. If the top clamp is bent uneven, it will cause waves which will run down the strop.
If my strop is cupping, I pull it tight and cup it the other way by squeezing the sides with the other hand so the sides are low and the center is high. I then pull my hand down the strop maintaining the upwards cup several times.
Some never need it, but some do frequently. Mostly my thinner strops do this.
A matter of 'training' the leather

I have removed the clamp and been manipulating the leather as you said.
I'm hesitantly positive that it will eventually even out, the strop itself is very supple and feels like it will mold towards an acceptable shape.

The surface itself doesn't feel nearly as good as my old one.

Rubbing over it it feels like a film of dried up dirt/residue is on it.
Not glassy smooth as my old one, and near the upper part of the strop it becomes much thinner and the leather feels pretty bad there.
I've been literally scraping it slowly with the edge of a razor and it's getting slowly better.
You can feel a ton of small dots on the surface, it's pretty bad. After carefully scraping, the majority of the stropping surface starts to feel decent though, still stiff, but getting better, I'm hopeful.

Interestingly when scraping it's like a clear coat is coming off, shiny little pieces.

I'm curious how it will eventually turn out, but I do think there's a nice piece of leather in there somewhere. But for now I'm not putting my daily shavers on it.

Daily rubbing and some light scraping will have to do, microfiber cloths don't help and scraping is a must to even and smooth out the texture. Still very poor quality for the 90000 or any Kanayama for that matter. Uneven thickness, rough texture, cupping, hard & dirty feeling stropping surface. It was the last 90000 in stock when I bought it, probably for a reason.

Remove the strop from the clamp and lay it flat on like a counter top and then take a warm damp cotton cloth and wipe not rub in either an upward or downward direction and keep doing this while keeping the cotton cloth damp and when the strop is damp completely thru flip it over and lay a flat board on it and add some weight and let it sit over night, you may have to do this a few times but it should fix the problem.

After it’s dry clamp it back in the hardware but don’t overly tighten and then with a cupped hand just give it some good rubs everytime you pass by it, cupping hand will slowly force the leather to get a crown that will flatten when using

Maybe I'm wrong but as I remember he doesn't recommend any water to be used on his strops except for a damp cloth to clean surface dust off.

He also said they never need oil but this has been debated

I oiled one of mine and it only made it darker. The oil did not degrade its performance

Thanks for all the feedback, despite it having severe issues, I think about 80% of the stropping surface will turn out alright eventually, I hope.

manipulating it seems to work very well with these strops, they're extremely supple and that's what's so amazing about these strops. The cupping might be worked out like this.

The surface itself is my major concern, with careful scraping the rougher parts are starting to slowly become smoother. I think I'll just rub it daily and strop with some spare razors on it for a while, I think the combination will do nicely for the strop. We'll see how it turn out and functions in a few weeks and months!

I have successfully ironed my Kanayama strop. Slightly damp teatowel between iron and strop. Try on the bit that lives under the clamp before doing the entire strop.
I have ironed my Kanayama and Tony Miller strops successfully, only my Dovo strop, the one with leather sewn to canvas, did not like it.

These strops can take some abuse. I believe shell cordovan will not show crease marks if you ever wanna bend it or roll it up.

My memory is lacking but instructions say that you can use a wet towel to add water to the strop but stop before the discoloration reaches the back.. I think that might be related to cleaning it..
I have done that and i have used Leatherique to remove the metal from the strop . It is a product for restoring old leather car seats where you saturate the leather with one product over a few days and then use another product to remove the filth..

My 90000 is super soft and slick but shows some swarf..I did recently buy a spare one to store in my cupboard forever, i think i will check on it after reading this thread.