Cupping help

Forgive me since I am sure this has been asked before, I just want to make sure I get this right. I have a 3 inch wide strop and I think it is cupping towards the center. I have been practicing the x stroke but i noticed that when I do go straight about a third of the way down only the heel and toe are in contact with the leather. It does not hang in the bathroom, was never treated with any dressing and I have been rubbing it with my palm daily.

From what I found doing a search should lather be applied to the front and allowed to dry? Should I use a bottle and rub from the backside? Any advice would be helpful.

By the way, great site and with your help and how to guides my shaving experience is getting better by the day

Jim

I would say to keep any style of dressing off the leather for the time being. Once you put something on, you can't take it off.

I would turn your strop over (so that the rough side is facing up), and use a bottle to rub the strop. Give it a good go. See if repeated applications of this will help. If not, we'll go from there.

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Originally Posted by Maxi

I would say to keep any style of dressing off the leather for the time being. Once you put something on, you can't take it off.

I would turn your strop over (so that the rough side is facing up), and use a bottle to rub the strop. Give it a good go. See if repeated applications of this will help. If not, we'll go from there.

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Thanks Maxi, will give that a try first and report back.

I've had good results with a cupped strop by forcing it to "cup" the other way, holding it in that position for a while, then laying it flat on a table and putting weights or books on top of it to "train" it into its new shape. Worked for me.

The bottle trick seemed to work. I took the strop apart, laid the leather out on a piece of paper face down on a flat surface and rubbed repeatedly with a bottle several times over two days. If it reoccurs I will be back. In the meantime I will do some reading up on strops.

Thanks for the help.