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.

Originally Posted by Slur

Are you sure about this?
In US you can buy a gun, and they forbid you to buy a cleaning solvent?

Would not surprise me at all. Our politicians have been trying for 220 years to take away our God-given right to keep and bear arms.

Since we don't have a Constitutional amendment protecting our right to buy chemicals, I'm sure our politicians have done everything in their power to protect us from ourselves by preventing us from buying or possessing all but the most harmless of chemicals.

Originally Posted by fyrfyter43

Would not surprise me at all. Our politicians have been trying for 220 years to take away our God-given right to keep and bear arms.

Since we don't have a Constitutional amendment protecting our right to buy chemicals, I'm sure our politicians have done everything in their power to protect us from ourselves by preventing us from buying or possessing all but the most harmless of chemicals.

right you are... and everything up to and including baby shampoo has at least 2 warnings on it.....

I agree with that other Bloke, Saddle Soap followed by Neetsfoot and or Fromm Strop Dressing, always works for me, I collect a good many affordable hanging strops and use the above all the time with great results.

Have good one, tinkersd