For my home-made strop, a Tandy leather 3" wide chunk of heavy cow leather, which would be better surface treatment; Neatsfoot Oil or Mink Oil? The Neatsfoot smells like a rendering plant and the Mink Oil is waxy to the feel. Suggestions?
Printable View
For my home-made strop, a Tandy leather 3" wide chunk of heavy cow leather, which would be better surface treatment; Neatsfoot Oil or Mink Oil? The Neatsfoot smells like a rendering plant and the Mink Oil is waxy to the feel. Suggestions?
I have used both. Mink Oil has Neatsfoot Oil in it.
Before you treat it with any chemicals, I highly suggest you rub it every day with an oily hand....for at least a month. See if that works first. Chemicals don't come out.
Just to be fair, neither one of those products contain or is made of chemicals. It is rendered oil from cattle (Neatsfoot) and mink. You could also use Saddle Soap to soften your leather.
Use the neats foot, the mink oil does have waxes in it which will affect the draw.
fair enough....neatsfoot oil and mink oil....still too much. I messed up a really nice strop because of neatsfoot oil. Just trying to help.
Actually nowadays most of these products contain some chemicals as they are not found in the pure form easily.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerrybyers
That being said some searching will eventually lead you to the pure product.
But I do agree with maxi most strops are at their best with just some palm rubbing.
True, true.
I just offered my opinion. For what it's worth, I also think we shouldn't overthink stropping. To get a good strop, you just need a good taunt, pliable piece of leather. I seriously doubt we could detect a mechanical advantage of leather treated with one product over another. You get a better strop based on the method of tanning (this is where I would worry about chemicals and type of leather being tanned).
FWIW, my personal strop is latigo leather that was originally wiped down with Neatsfoot oil and now hangs in the garage. Right before I use it, it gets a good palm rubbing. Seems to work for me and has for 30+ years.
Regardless, all this information is good.
Quote:
Originally Posted by basil
I buy the real stuff by the quart @ Tandy leather. Of course you wont need that much, smaller bottles are available.
Hand rubbing and a lot of use are all that's normally required for new leather. Neatsfoot oil is easy to find in its pure form (avoid the 'prime' and 'compound' types - the compounded neatsfoot oils may have mineral oil additives that are harmful to leather over time), mink oil less so - when bought as a leather conditioner it can have beeswax in it, some types have silicones, some have lanolin, and some sorts aren't even made from mink - they are made from pigs. Go figure. There is even a liquid version (most of the others are waxy solids or pastes) that contains mink oil and neatsfoot oil. One type is even blended with the sap of pine trees (pine-pitch).
Traditionally mink oil was rendered from the fat of minks that lies just under the skin - it has a fatty component in it that is compatible with human skin (around 17 per cent) but some vegetable sources can contain more (macadamia nut).
If you don't know what the mink oil is compounded from, I would avoid it.
Regards,
Neil
The mink oil worked great. I rubbed it in with my hands and warmed the leater up and then pressed it with the side of a coffee mug. It smoothed out great and has a nice slick and smooth feel to the surface now. It even sounds better.
If your happy with it, that's all that matters. You do need to be careful when applying oils to leather. a little goes a long way. I have some Tandy leather myself, The 3" wide cowhide they sell for belting. It works great. I use it for paddle strops. See pic. I've not treated it with anything yet, other than rubbing it with my oily hand. Actually, I like the draw it has. I personally like strops with minimal draw, like Horsehide for instance, or SRD's Premium 1. The last paddle in the pic is SRD's English Bridle, the result of an unfortunate stropping accident.
(Never strop distracted!) That one was made by Nun2sharp....
Edit: Like Obie, I only rub my strops, hanging and other's with the palm of my hand.
Gentlemen,
I have six strops and have yet to use any type of oil treatment on them. Since the strops are rotated, the day's strop gets a good rubdown with the palms of my hands (before the shower, by the way) and that's it. As my good friend Neil Miller notes, daily rubdown with the hands and steady use do the job.
I agree about using as little treatment as possible. I think that the little bit of mink oil that I put on the surface leather followed by warming by rubbing with my palms, softened the surface to where it flatten when pressed with the side of a coffee mug. The Tandy leather is great except it comes from the store with a rough and uneven surface. Anyway, the surface is smoother and slicker now. I'm really happy with it and will keep rubbing it with my hands to warm it. But, no more surface treatments of mink oil because it's just right now.
+1 on that, I have also used both neetsfoot oil[on very old, dried up strop] mink oil, which can have an effect on the "Draw" of the surface, I personaly like it if used sparingly, and my favorite is Fromm Dressing, it if used in small amounts does, IMHO, do a good job of making older well used and some times abused strops come back to life!
YMMV, tinkersed
So anyone use "Mink Oil Paste", by rubbing a small amount onto the palm of you hands, and rubbing it into your strop, maybe every few months. ?
Just curios - ??????
I'll use a tad of neatsfoot every few months however I live in single digit humidity and the dry air draws the moisture out of everything (including me). Under normal humidity conditions I doubt I would have to use anything.
I use neats foot oil or saddle oil every 4-6 months and wipe them down with a water dampened rag monthly. Just a habit I picked up from my Dad. Mink oil can be a lot of things so be sure to read the ingredients list
My strop has been doing fine with just a palm rub when I walk past it.
There are no chems in eitherQuote:
Originally Posted by Maxi
My problem is I forget to do even a palm rub. But I'm old school - I currently shave with a sharpened clam shell I found on my honeymoon in Tahiti. It replaced my Ralf Aust...
I have used Fromm strop dressing & it worked well. I just finally got some Ballistol & it says it works on leather. Used it on an old cheap leather strop that was real dried out. Put a fairly heavy coat on first & let it soak over night. Hand rubbed it the next morning & wiped it off with a cloth. Wiped a thin coat on then hand rubbed it & let it sit over night. The strop is supple now & works good. Said what the heck & used it on both of my Shell horsehide strops using the same method as on the cowhide strop & I LOVE the feel of the strop's! No problems with the leather so far., it has been 2 weeks & I have to say I am a happy camper!
Slawman
Does it leave any residue?
I've got some Ballistol and some old strops and might try this
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slawman
I flew to Portugal a few weeks ago with my SRD kangaroo strop in my toiletries bag... some of my cologne spilled and got the bottom of the strop and it had completely dried it out by the time I opened the toiletry bag, leaving the leather very dry and slightly wrinkled (from removing the oils in it, I imagine). The bottom was definitely unusable for stropping in that condition and the only natural oil I had easily available was extra virgin olive oil, which I used on it, returning it to a usable state, just slightly darker than the rest of the strop. I can't sense any difference in texture or draw from the untreated part and am thinking of using the olive oil on the whole thing to make it one consistent color.
I have found no residue. I rubbed it in pretty well by hand so that might make a difference. I have never been able to find it close to me but Gander Mountain now carries it. Just got the small non aerosol can & it was a little over $10.00 with tax. You don't need much & it works well for so many things.
The thing about olive oil & vegetable oils is they can go rancid & get gummy so I wouldn't use them myself.
Slawman
O.K. I am getting a new strop within five days. I have an old General Cronk strop well beyond its years, maybe 25 to 30. On the linen side I used a commercial powder but changed to using food grade diatomaceous earth. The only difference I note is the price relative to quantity. I am wondering if powder is best. It makes cleaning the linen side up very easy, using a vacuum with a bristle to loosen the lodged powder. I have a conditioner I bought for the leather side. When I use the conditioner the draw of the blade has a high drag coefficient, high resistance. I don't want to screw up this strop, it was $91, a lot for an old man on a restricted retirement income. You mention oils from the palm of your hand. Problem, my hands are dry. I have searched this site for information on prepping a strop but cannot find it if it exists. I am desperate for information before the strop comes in. Help!
What does one do if you have dry hands?
I rub in a bit of Bick 4 leather conditioner a few times a year. That, and palm rubbing in-between seems to keep them fine.
I could caution on neetsfoot oil. Too much will make a gooey mess, FME
I have one of my strops that a few years ago I put way too much neatsfoot oil on, big mistake. Since then I stopped using it because it's oily and slippery, lost it's "draw". I tried wiping it down with dry towel every day, a wet towel, my hands, paper towel, newspaper, still so oily. Is there any way to make it usable again?
Without touching a piece of leather I give this advice with caution. Alcohol dries out the surface. Let's say I was going to dye a piece that had already been tanned. I would use denatured alcohol and rub the dickens out of it. May have to do it several times. You NEVER want to soak leather in anything. Neetsfoot oil should be used in drops only and I never advise that for rookies to leather. Liquid glycerin is all I ever use on leather for conditioning and cleaning. I have a saddle that is over 150 years old. still ride in it. It gets horse sweat,dirt,beer,water, mud, you name it. I wipe it off with the liquid and put it away. Leather is dead skin. After tanned you should only need to clean it and use it.
Where do you get this glycerin. I am aware of it at pharmacies, it that the kind you use and what exactly does it do. I have a new one coming tomorrow and out of all of the 30 plus years I have used commercial conditioners from shaving places.Quote:
Originally Posted by 10Pups
Wrap it in paper towels and put a little pressure on it with some books or something. I think I remember Neil Miller recommending this in a thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by xiaotuzi
Tack/feed stores carry the kind I use. I think Tandy has some. You want the kind used on glycerin. I don't know about regular soap.
Paper towels , fine saw dust, anything that will soak up oil. Not the stuff they use on floors though. That has some other fun stuff in it.
With all things leather think natural.
I've over oiled a strop before and the way I fixed was to put it between two newspapers (maybe 20 pages each) and then I put a bag of cement on top of it for weight. A week later I had two oily newspapers and an almost oil free strop.
Another option is to strop and wipe the oil off the blade. Strop and wipe, strop and wipe, strop and wipe, repeat a thousand times.
For what it's worth...4yrs on..:w I fairly recently over oiled a strop with neatsfoot but continued to use it despite the heavy draw. Eventually it started to dry out and fray on the surface... I thought I'd ruined it. A few days ago I gave it a mild saddle soap and water treatment. Let it dry then hit it again. After the 2nd dry I applied some Mink oil with a clean cloth. I didn't use much, about a shoe shine amount. Then rubbed it in further with my thumbs. Let that dry for a few hours and buffed it with a brush. It came up beautifully. Silky smooth draw, I couldn't be more pleased with the result.Quote:
Originally Posted by xiaotuzi
The MO I used was a famous American boot brand MO and does contain silicone and lanolin. Hopefully I won't have to do that very often, if at all? Will try and stick to hand rubbing from now on. It was a useful salvage method though.
I've used rubbing alcohol on a rag, to remove excess oil on a over oiled strop. No problems arose from doing it.