Thread: There's a crease in my strop

My wife is awesome, and I wouldn't say she supports my new obsession, but more like she approves of it. Haha. So for my b-day in the beginning of February she ordered me a norton 4/8k, a 2" red latigo strop and a few other little things from another shaving site. When I received the package the strop was wedged in the box and bent sharply in half with canvas/fabric facing in and the finished smooth leather facing out in order to make room for the other stuff. I don't know how long it's been bent, but now over a month later it's hard to see but can definitely be felt when stropping. I palm rub it and strop with it maybe 3-5 times a week. I have tried just bending it back the other way and even leaving bent back over night. My fear in doing this is making it worse.

I would imagine this 1" wide area would wear much faster than the rest. So my questions are; could this ruin the strop over time? If so would that small area even matter? or can I just let it go and hope it fixes itself after a while? Also, even though the hump is very smooth do you think there is a possibility of this effecting my razors edge?


Thanks a lot!

Originally Posted by JoeTheCarpenter

My wife is awesome, and I wouldn't say she supports my new obsession, but more like she approves of it. Haha. So for my b-day in the beginning of February she ordered me a norton 4/8k, a 2" red latigo strop and a few other little things from another shaving site. When I received the package the strop was wedged in the box and bent sharply in half with canvas/fabric facing in and the finished smooth leather facing out in order to make room for the other stuff. I don't know how long it's been bent, but now over a month later it's hard to see but can definitely be felt when stropping. I palm rub it and strop with it maybe 3-5 times a week. I have tried just bending it back the other way and even leaving bent back over night. My fear in doing this is making it worse.

I would imagine this 1" wide area would wear much faster than the rest. So my questions are; could this ruin the strop over time? If so would that small area even matter? or can I just let it go and hope it fixes itself after a while? Also, even though the hump is very smooth do you think there is a possibility of this effecting my razors edge?


Thanks a lot!

You should be fine -- just use it.
Hang it up.... gravity will do the right
thing.

If you happen to have an empty glass bottle you
can rub your strop with it on a humid day or
perhaps spray a LITTLE water on it. Hold the
strop both loose and tight you want it to bend
the radius of the bottle a bit and also be pulled
straight.

There is no extra value in doing it all in one
day so take your time...

Two things here. First the strop was poorly packaged by the seller causing damage. If it was me, being a new strop I would have sent it back. Why should you have to perform service work on a new item? On the other hand if it is minor the previous advice might solve the problem. The decision is, if you play with it and it doesn't come out then will the seller take it back after you played with it?