Thread: strop "shine"

I've rubbed a few with a smooth sided, glass mug.
Helps smooth over that rough texture on some restores.

Originally Posted by bluesman7

I've had luck with a block of pure carnuba wax. Actually turned the flesh side of an old leather belt into a very serviceable travel strop.

Interesting!

Originally Posted by bluesman7

I've had luck with a block of pure carnuba wax. Actually turned the flesh side of an old leather belt into a very serviceable travel strop.

Carnuba wax, thank you I'm going to write that one down. I like using waxes. Might sound funny but there's a bunch of things you can do with a good wax!

Carnuba is the hardest wax. The block feels more like a piece of plastic than a wax.

I wonder if you could mix Carnuba wax with very fine diamond powder while heated, and then paint it onto a strop or balsa.. ?
Is that something that has been done or could work?

That said it does seem like a good way to patch strop damage.

To answer the original question in a slightly more scientific approach...
Skin has layers.
From deep to surface...
Hipodermis
Dermis and
Epidermis.

Hipodermis in mostly fat and conective tissue and blod vesels...some glands also form gere at the boundry between hipodermis and dermis.

Dermis has more conective tissue and glands including sebaceus glands that secreet an oily wax called sebum...this give the skin resistance to ware reducing friction and pritects against water and bacteria...and fungus.

Epidermis....this is actualy the top layer you strop on.

This is where the magic happens.

Grass eating animals have a diet rich in silicone.
They deposit these fine silicone particles in cells called keratocites.
These cells form the epidermus.
They also contain keratine....a wax.


What happens in tanning.

Be it natural tanning or chemical...purpouse of taning is to remove the hair.
So the leather is dipped in tanins that melt the hair folicule and make it fall of similar to hair removing solutions for cosmetical use.

In this process you are left with a clean leather that needs to be prepaired mecanicaly.

Bottom fatty layer is scraped off.
Top dead keratocite cel layer is scraped off.

In this process leather looses oils and keratine wax.

Why is this important?
The thing that keeps leather togeter is the colagen web of fibers.
These fibers need oils to reduce friction and fill in the voids between them to prevent mould from getting in.
As the leather mooves if it's dry these fibers break du tu friction.

What about wax...well again friction.
The shiny finish on your stropp is because of wax...be it natural wax still present in the leather or added wax like carnauba or sintethic microcristaline wax....

Why is the wax important.?
While you are rubbing the metal blade on the surface you generate friction.
So much friction that at a microscopic level the steel heats up and adding the abrasive property of the silicone it starts to move arround or burnish....refining the bevels and edge.

So wax is important to reduce the ware on your strop and form a barier to keep out dust mould and contaminants.

Although this superficial layer is the best for stropping...the leather has abrasive properties even under taht layer...just not at the same level of finesse and quality.

Hope that answere your question.

If you are trying to apply carnauba wax...
There are 3 easy ways.

1.get some toluen...a solvent and put carnauba wax shavings in it in a small glass bottle. It will disolve.
Use a lint free microfiber cloth to use that solution on your strop.
Once its dry buff it up with the microfiber cloth.

2 use a bar of carnauba wax and gently rubb it on your stropp pushing hard enough to impregnate the wax on the surface...but not to hard to scratch it.
Then buff.

3.a clean buffing wheel and a bar of wax...load the wheel...buff the stropp...like shomakers do.

Indeed, we should realize how much of the volume of an old strop is oil, water, natural things of all sorts.
Without that, it is dust!

Tom, I've noticed on the boarhide strops, that the hair side is not the side that we strop on. At least that's what I think that I am seeing. The back side of the strop has the pigskin surface that we are used to seeing on footballs and such.

Well, the back-side is totally different. I am convinced that the smooth side of boarhide and pigskin were milled and are the stropping side. The hair side? This is no horse, nor cow!
I saw an old French one a while back which was the rough (football) side out.
Try it! You never know!