Thread: Cleaning a strop: How I do it

I bought this paddle less than a year ago when I bought my first straight razor.
On one side it is a fine leather strop, on the other side it is green-pasted. I made the mistake when using the green-pasted side not to clean the razor before passing to the leather side. The result was that the green paste residuals passed from the razor onto the leather. Moreover, from the daily use, metal and dirt were joined on the leather.
In a certain point some months ago, I had the “marvelous” idea to pass the yellow dovo paste (the leather strop conditioner) on the edge of the leather to “make it better”. The result was a leather surface full of dirt, without the initial smoothness, and of course with worse stropping ability compared to the one that had in the beginning (in my opinion of course).

Under these circumstances I wanted to clean up this paddle and to bring it back as near as possible to its original condition.

I thought the best way to clean it was to use a dry cleaning processes similar to the one they use in the laundry services.
So, I bought the perchloroethylene* (tetrachloroethylene*), took some soft cloth, and started to rub the cloth impregnated with the solvent onto the leather. I continued rubbing and cleaning for about 5 minutes. Then I left the paddle to dry.
After less than an hour the leather of the paddle was dry and very clean, quite as it was when I bought it.

* perchloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene is the solvent that is being used for dry cleaning and I bought it from a chemical shop.

BEFORE CLEANING:






AFTER CLEANING:



AFTER DRYING:





PS: sorry for the bad quality and brightness of the photos. I can't do any better.

Did it dry the leather? I would be afraid of pulling all the oil out.

Originally Posted by rodb

Did it dry the leather?

This was a new strop, not a vintage. When I bought it the leather was very smooth and it didn’t need any kind of grass or conditioner.

The cleaning process took away the dirt and the dovo conditioner paste that I had added and the leather remained dry but soft and with a smooth surface, as it was when I bought it.

That's good to know!
If it was mine I would probably put some Neatsfoot oil on just to make sure.

Originally Posted by rodb

If it was mine I would probably put some Neatsfoot oil on just to make sure.

It really doesn’t need it at the moment. It is very smooth. Maybe in the future if it hardens I will use a conditioner.

Originally Posted by Slur

It really doesn’t need it at the moment. It is very smooth. Maybe in the future if it hardens I will use a conditioner.

Why wait, go ahead and give it some neatsfoot to replace any natural oils lost in the cleaning process.

While I am glad you have a clean strop, the use of these chemicals is potentially far more dangerous than the more common solvents. When working with textiles in NYC we did not even consider having PERC in the lab.

For example, Note acute exposure reactions in this EPA hazard summary: Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) | Technology Transfer Network Air Toxics Web site | US EPA

It shouldn't be put out there that PERC is a quick fix without sufficient warning.

regards,
Torolf

I'm pretty sure you can't even buy it in the US

I think I'll stick with saddle soap and mink/neatsfoot oil.

You can Buy it,but as above be carefull,will take out your liver in a heartbeat (from the fumes)
Killed my uncle right after the Korean war,used as a cleaning sovent in ordanance.