Thread: Is my strop Junk? (possibly too dry?)

Hi,

I'm relativley new to straight edge shaving, and the other half bought me a new strop from a supposed reputable online dealer.
When the strop arrived it was very very dry and very hard. I tried to strop using it but it just did not feel how I thought it should?

I have since rubbed it down with dovo yellow paste (animal fat I believe), and it is a little better, but now it feels like it has a few hard uneven spots?

Is this how a strop should be or is it scrap? (I would have thought the strop should feel like a leather belt, nice and supple & floppy???)

the suppleness is really a part of the type of leather ... i have 2 latigo strops and a russian leather strop that are all very stiff even after treating with pure neetsfoot they sound and feel different form my horsehide, bridle, and cordovan strops which are all more supple and some almost "floppy". they all work well though.
i would try working some more dressing into the hard areas but your strop was likely to be fine before you started.

i'm sure strop specialist will be along with more ideas.

enjoy,
jim

Who makes the strop you have? Will be able to tell you much more with that information.

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

I don't think it is any particular brand of strop, as I think the wife just bought a generic beginners strop from a SE shaving website although she told me it was not cheap a flea bay one, which is why I want to salvage it if possible.

I will see how it gets on, and just practice my stropping with an old blunt edge to help break it in.

Just not quite sure what to do with stropping my good edges for now?

Well as has been said different strops act differently. If your strop is a Illinois strop then it seeming stiff would be normal. But the flip side of that if it is a strop like a selective strop it will never be able to use it as a sr strop.

Does the strop have any logos on it such as a bull or a star?

Oh and forgot you can strop a sharp blade on newspaper to keep the edge crisp. If you look in the wiki I think there is a thread about it.

Not that I can recall.

Will try rubbing in some neatsfoot as well and see how that goes, if I get no joy then I'll have to bite the bullet and get a replacement.

If it wasn't cupped, wrinkled, bent then maybe it's okay for use.

Michael

Strops do vary alot but the one thing the quality ones have in common is they are smooth and uniform and do not feel like cardboard.

As a last resort, before you give up on it, give it a fair coating of neatsfoot oil and work the leather over the towel bar in your bathroom. Basically make a turn around the bar and hold the sides parallel, then work it back and forth - that should eliminate the hard spots.

Depending on the leather, you will get wrinkles from doing this - you can sand them out or burnish with glass. I used to use glass bottles but have found that I like the edge of tempered glass even better for burnishing.

You will lose some of the thickness of the leather from doing all of this, but it will end up supple.