Thread: Cologne*leaked onto my strop!

Hi guys. I found a lot of threads on cleaning an old strop but none that I trust would help me.

On my way home from a weekend away, I think it was either my cologne or sun screen that leaked all over everything in my bag. Either way, my strop (beginner filly from rupp) is a mess. At the time my razor needed to be honed so I wanted to buy a hone instead of paying someone. And of course life put my razor and strop on the back burner. 8 months later I just got a new and nice new strop. I havnt touched my old strop. I wanted to ask if anyone thinks there is any hope for my old strop. Only half of the strop was leaked on. It's still pretty smooth but a little stiff. I can feel where the damage is is ever so slightly raised. I was reading about people sanding their strops. I thought that might be a good idea. Luckily this is not my only strop anymore so I can experiment if need be. Any ideas?

Thanks.

I will wait with you on this one to see what more experienced shavers have to say about refurbishing the strop.
But,
I would like to guess also; I would soak it in water to try and swell the leather, as did the liquid that spilled on it probably did. then i would saddle soap scrub it completely. Let it totally dry for several days, maybe a week. Then I would use a good conditioner like "Bick 4" on it, then let sit for days.
I have had success with this method, on bringing back to life, small hone/strops.
Lets see what the rest of the guys say.

Probably a good leather cleaner like bick or lexol and a very thorough cleaning and then some conditioner or some neatsfoot oil and then see what happens.

Soaking in water is the nuclear option with strops. It's the last thing I would use and normally I use it to get creases and more physical issues out. Often times it leaves a strop permanently stained.

If you had soaked the rest of the strop to the same degree as the already wet strop at the time, you would have had equal swell and less work to do. However, soaking now would still probably have some effect on both areas and is less likely to help - as thebigspendur says, it is a drastic option and it almost inevitably darkens the strop and changes its surface characteristics.

Hopefully it was cologne that leaked and not sunscreen - so you don't have a half-oily strop to contend with. The stiffness tends to indicate cologne to my mind. I would try saddle-soap - instead of getting the strop soaking wet, just rub the saddlesoap in with a wet but not sopping wet rag, leave it to dry (weighted if you prefer) and then buff it. The surface will almost certainly change in texture and draw, but the oils in the saddlesoap will have made the stiff part of the strop a bit more pliable. You can repeat the treatment, but bear in mind that you are adding some percentage of oil (in the soap) each time and that the draw will increase.

Regards,
Neil