Calling the Strop Gurus

I finally worked up the courage to clean up my grandfathers strop. I'm not sure how old it is, but I remember it hanging from his barber chair when I was very young, and I'm 52. The leather was in fine shape, and after a good cleaning with saddle soap, and working in some mink oil, it is very supple. The linen side was another story. It was stiff as a board, and had several raised areas that felt like a washboard when I drew a blade across it. I soaked it in hot water, scrubbed it with Dawn dishsoap and a nailbrush, rinsed many times till the water ran clear. (you should have seen the black crud that came off it) Still stiff and washboard-like. I then placed it between a couple of towels and ironed it till it finally smoothed out. (got a definite smell of beeswax during the ironing, so maybe didn't get all of the wax/strop dressing out). It is now dry, and quite flat, still very stiff. The linen is a very coarse, but very tight weave.

1. Is the linen supposed to be very stiff?

2. Do I need to treat/apply some sort of strop dressing?

3. Is it possible that it was originally treated with beeseax, or a beeswax based dressing? If so what should I use on it now?


Further info: The brand name is worn to the point of being unreadable, but the leather is stamped "Tanned in Scotland" "BuckSkin" Price $2.00
H.B. Jaeger B.S. Co. Jacksonville ILLS "X-L-ALL"

Any info/guidance much appreciated.

I have a dozen old strops, some were NOS when I got them, others needed the linen washed. It is normal for the old linens to be stiff IME. If you buy a brand new top of the line Kanayama the linen is stiff like that out of the box. I would say it is good to go as is.

I am by no means a guru, but I agree. My great grandfather was a barber, and I remember the linen on his strop being ridiculously stiff. A few months ago, I bought a vintage shell strop, the linen component being very stiff an dirty. Even after I cleaned it, like yours, it still stayed very stiff with a really coarse weave-- I've used it daily for two months now with no problems. So, just enjoy using it!

Thanks Jimmy and Chay. So no need to use any kind of dressing on the linen, right?

On my regular daily strop I use no dressing on linen or leather. Some guys use Dovo white paste on their linen which IIRC is only mildly abrasive if it is abrasive at all.

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Originally Posted by DMHarper

Thanks Jimmy and Chay. So no need to use any kind of dressing on the linen, right?

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Just try it out first, if you like the results, you're good to go. If not, you can always add a little white paste to it. I don't think that you could do any considerable damage stropping on just that plain linen. I personally have never used any pastes... but, I'm no expert either; I've just enjoyed my shaves, trying to employ the simplest techniques I can. Good luck.

Thanks guys, I sure am glad I stumbled in to this forum. Great bunch here with answers to all the questions I never knew to ask the old man while he was alive. Really appreciated!

I recently gained a NOS Hess linen/canvas, it is stiff!

DMHarper: this is in no way an instruction for you to do anything further to the strop, but the best way to cut wax is acetone. You can use nail polish remover as a cheaper alternative, but it has fragrances and skin preservatives diluted into the solution. You can also get it at any home improvement store like Lowe's, etc. I think you may also be able to use lacquer thinner, but I know acetone to be gentler and easier to use.

After reading a lot of older barber teaching materials Ive come to believe that some barbers preferred a stiffer strop, both leather and linen. The thinner flimsy strops apparently were sold for home use and not for the barber trade.

According to what I've read, the professional quality linen strops were machine finished to smooth out the surface which helps produce a keener edge when stropping a razor. Just how the strop was machined I don't know.

Some barber manuals recommend not wetting a linen strop at all unless very soiled, and then only briefly with lather which is then immediately removed. The reason is that prolonged contact with water swells the linen fibers and can affect the smoothed surface. I don't know if ironing can restore the smooth machined surface. How this might affect the stropping quality of the linen I couldn't say. But I'd guess that the smoother the surface, the better the stropping quality.

One manual recommended alcohol to clean the linen. I've tried rubbing alcohol applied to a clean cloth and it seemed to work well. I usually use a wrung out damp rag to scrub the linen followed by a dry cloth to remove any moisture and dirt. I've also had good results using a fine pumice stone to redress the surface of my vintage linen.

As far as the wax found on vintage linen strops, I believe it served a few functions: 1) Made the linen less prone to absorbing moisture and swelling. 2) Provided additional smoothness by filling in the grain of the linen. 3) Provided a tacky surface to grab and draw out the edge while stropping. 4) Sometimes (according to some old patents I've read) abrasive agents were embedded in the wax to help hone the edge.

The bottom line, for me at least, is to do as little as possible to a vintage strop and keep it as the manufacturer made it, wax included. The exception being the breaking in/ dressing process for the leather side, but that's another thread.

Great info, honedright, Thanks. In examining the strop this morning, it appears that I managed to get the old grit and gunk out of the linen, but I don't think that I managed to remove enough of the wax to even get the linen fibers saturated. There is no observable swelling of the fibers, and while coarsely woven, the surface is now fairly smooth. The previous "washboard wrinkles" are gone and the strop, while smooth, is still stiff as a board, and the surface still has a bit of a waxy feel to the touch.

I am going to leave well-enough alone at this point, and just use it as is. I feel comfortable using it now that the wrinkles are gone.

Again, Thanks for all of the great info. Every detail helps fill in the bigger picture.