Originally Posted by
Castel33
Skippy its not that saddle soap is to harsh on strops its just not meant to break in a strop. I have used saddle soap a couple times clean strops with no bad results. Its just after you use the saddle soap you will need to use some type of strop dressing to put some oils back into the strop as the soap will take alot of the oils already in the strop out.
Now hsudandy I have heard that the illinois strops tend to be on the stiff side when you first buy them but that after use they do break in nicely and that a strop dressing helps to speed the breaking in time. What I would do is use a very small amount of the hide rejuvenator you have on the back of the leather part of your strop and work it in good then use the strop like normal for a couple of days and if you think it needs more add some more to the back and work it in. Also like Maxi said rubing down the strop with an unwashed hand will in part alot of your skins natural oils into the strop a soften it up a bit which is how alot of guys maintan thier strops on here.
Good luck and have fun