Thread: Strop care

I put some williams lather on latigo strop it washed off the burgundy color of the strop!! I have heard that a daily rubbing with hands is best but I am too lazy to do that every day. I don't have neatsfoot oil but I want to start experimenting with minuscule amount of neatsfoot oil yearly.

my strop has nicks in it from when I first began the process of learning.... will this mess up my blade while stropping?

Originally Posted by fifty

my strop has nicks in it from when I first began the process of learning.... will this mess up my blade while stropping?

It depends how large they are. The best thing to do is to gently sand them down. The strop should then work as it should

I find it interesting the fixation on draw.For those that seek more draw,What is it you feel is benificial about more draw? Just curious.

Me, I like both, I've collected quite a few strops over the years. Some have lots of draw, some have none. I don't find any difference when I shave. I think "draw" is just personal preference to the stropper. I've never seen any studies, or any data on the effects of draw on a blade. I could be wrong. I think another forum did some experimenting going from a strop with heavy to draw to one with none, and found no difference in the edge. I used to go from one strop to another, a latigo to a horsehide, or English Bridle to Premium 1, I just liked doing it.

A strop that cheap, you could soak yourself in baby oil and sing "I will always love you" to it while rubbing it with your hand and it would not really matter. In fact, I knew a member once who......well, let's just say they "liked" their strops very much.

James.

what has worked for me is to treat the back side of the leather with mink oil that you wnearould use on boots, after about a week or two letting it work it relaxes the leather and you have no curling on the stropping side near the edges. anyone have any input? also I have put some dovo black polishing past on the stropping side, works like a dream.

mike.

I find it odd that draw on my stop varies a lot from razor to razor.

Some blades have a lot, but this morning my 6/8 W&B Bow had almost none. It doesn't seem to effect the shave. The Bow is one of my best.

My plain horse leather strop got one small treatment of neatsfoot up front when it was new and abrasive. I haven't done anything to it since. It has extremely low draw, and I don't want to add any draw to it, either. I have some other cowhide strops that do have a lot of draw, but they are not capable of creating an edge as fine as the slick horse leather strop does.

I am also wondering what the "draw" is with lots of draw.