Thread: not so flat strop

Just Came Back From Sugarcreek Ohio Anybody Know Were Thats At?Anyway I Bought Some Cinch Strap Its Cow Hide It Was Real Cheap8.00 For A Piece Thats 5ft Long 2in Wide. The Problem Is Its Not Flat When I Stroped On It I Could FeelThe Bumps On It. Does Anybody Think That Will Be A Problem And If So Does Anybody Have A Solution Thanks For The Help Michael

I don't know to much about the leather you are talking about if it has been tanned or not but if these are little hard spots a bit of neetsfoot oil should do the trick but only use a little as this stuff goes a long way/ or you could try rubbing the palm of your hand on it for a few days(just a wee while at a time) as the oil in your hand should also soften the leather

The old barbers would take lather and apply it to the strop on a flat and hard surface. Then they would take a bottle and roll it over the strop with pressure and work the lather into the leather. I've never tried it but some members have had success with it. Here is a post with the method honedright uses if you want to give it a try.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

The old barbers would take lather and apply it to the strop on a flat and hard surface. Then they would take a bottle and roll it over the strop with pressure and work the lather into the leather. I've never tried it but some members have had success with it. Here is a post with the method honedright uses if you want to give it a try.

I've done this a few times and it does work. Best with lather from tallow soaps like MWF. Be careful with rolling the bottle - too much uneven pressure may leave you with a curved strop. The fix for that is even more radical.

That being said, if the bumps are minor, you may not even need to do that. Just massaging the strop with the heel of your palm (about 50 laps) before your daily stropping should even it out over time, and is good for any strop anyway, bumps or not. I got a replacement "seconds" RL strop from Tony awhile back with a small "bump" on the leather which has no effect on my stropping.

Sometimes those bumps are fat deposits and from what I've heard from Tony there isn't much you can do about those.

That's why when you buy a ready made strop you pay the price you do. There's more to making a strop than getting a chunk of leather and cutting it and working it.