Thread: Is this Strop Useless?

I have a strop that was put away in a cupboard for many months in a folded position, so that is has a number of faint wrinkles in the leather, halfway along the strop. If you pull a razor along it, it bumps a little over the wrinkles, which I imagine can't be good for the razor's edge.

Is this strop useless now?

Thanks for your help!

Welcome to SRP. I wouldn't like that myself. I wouldn't think it would do the razor any good. Might do it harm, you'd have to try and see. I'm thinking , depending on how bad the wrinkles are, you might be able to get them out, or lessen them, by hanging the strop and rubbing it out with the palm of your hand.

I'm thinking some neetsfoot oil will soften the leather and relax the wrinkles

It depends how deep they are. You can try hanging it with some heavy weights attached for a week or two or pile books on top of it. Sometimes they come out and sometimes they don't. The nuclear option is soak the strop in water and let is slowly dry. That always seems to work though the strop might be left with some ugly stains.

Thanks to all for the advice. I actually ended up just running the strop under water for a moment, and hung a cast-iron pan off it for a few hours. When I checked again it was dry and straight as new, with actually no marks created by the water. (Just in case anyone else had a similar problem.)

Very nice...glad to hear you were able to save it! Congrats