Thread: Misadventure #1 - restoring antique strop.

When? Yesterday, present. I followed advice from another forum, I tried the search engine here, but unsuccessfuly. It went wrong, (except for the canvas/linen - that worked). Advice/direction suggested was: wash strop with tallow rich soap (tabac) which I did, use a pumice stone (natural), which I did and lay flat on cloth. Appears a lot of the pigment or dye was washed out (along with the filth and the cordovan is scratchy, and dry. Suppleness has gone I'm hopeful it can be rejuvenated and given the serviceable life it deserves. After all, 'the old nag' died to become a strop. Thanks for any assistance.

I've never done that to a strop but I've read posts on the topic. IIRC they said to lather up the leather on a flat surface and rub it down with a bottle. Here is a thread with some of that in it. Post 18 in that thread gives the old barber manual way of doing it.

Thanks for the response and link. I used the tabac soap, rubbed it all in, and the pumice stone did what was mentioned in that link, with the added shock at how much scratching and exodus of dye with the strop. I notice no mention of water in this link advice for conditioning strops. To get to this stage, I included water (rinsing) during my process....perhaps that added to the (current) stiffness and loss of suppleness of the strop. It is stiffer and seems drier now. Not sure to 'restore' the pigment, or wash it all out! I fear I've created a bit-of-a-mess.

PLAN:
I will use tabac again, generate a very thick lather (with boar shaving brush), apply to face of the strop with brush (is the back necessary?), and rub the bottle's side along the length of the face. I do not have any strop-'paste', so will wipe off excess after first application, then reapply and leave insitu for 24 hours. This time I will not leave in or rinse with water....(?)

Before I act, it might be prudent to await any kind response to my next 'planned interaction' with this strop. Thank you.

well lathering the strop is ok
rinsing with water is not
i would wipe off the dryed lather with DRY paper towel

if it has gotten werry dry you may need some exstra steps but what you suggest should atleast be safe

it got VERY wet it is thoroughly dried in a flat position on cloth

well if its not warped beyond repair its not dead yet

just in need of some care

not warped at all. I'll await any further advice before I try this out. Hopefully in twelve or so hours. thanks guys!

If it is now dried it needs to be remoisturized with an oil first . Neatsfoot oil would be best, front, back and sides but use just a little bit and allow to soak in overnite. Reapply if needed. A hand cream oil would also work.
Try rubbing the leather with a glass bottle to work in the oils.

Once it is again supple then you can use some sandpaper to smooth out the surface. I usually finish with a 400 grit. From there you can decide if that is the texture you wish or continue on with the shaving lather/bottle approach.

Hope this helps and let us know what you do and the results.

Good luck,

Wasn't B&B was it?

If so it looks like you forgot the bottling stage - if you pumice you have to bottle the strop to smooth it out again. Also, the pumice stone must have been pretty coarse. Not all is lost though - just lather it again, give it a really good, heavy bottling and let it dry - hanging with a weight or with a smooth absorbent layer over it under weight.

If the draw is off (eg the soap didn't have enough tallow in it) wipe it down with a well-wrung out damp cloth, pour a few drops of neatsfoot oil or squeeze some yellow strop dressing onto a balled-up cloth and spread it all over the strop quickly. Dampening the strop first stops the oil/tallow (yellow strop paste is just tallow) from being absorbed, giving you a chance to get a thin, even layer.

As for rubbing with the bottle - think more of trying to press the bottle through the strop - you need a very stout bottle with no seams/label and really lean into it - 5 mins minimum, more is better.

When it is thoroughly dry try it out - if it still has not got enough draw, just repeat the step above to increase the draw a bit. As you know the soap did not have enough tallow in it, you will have to do that step at least once.

Regards,
Neil

Personally I don't like the idea of water with leather. The two don't mix except certain types of specialized leathers like saddle leather and alcan leather. Most old strops are dry to begin with and the water makes it worse. There are leather cleaners out there that are like gels and use no water. Once clean you can then use a conditioner or neatsfoot oil.

The only time I use water with a strop is if the strop is in good condition but there is a crease in it that won't come out. Water then becomes the nuclear option. Once soaked and allowed to dry slowly without heat the crease will come out.