Thread: Anyone have heard about Weiffenbach strop?

Hello all good people,

I bought Weiffenbach strop and wondering if anyone has any experience with this company. It is old, probably 1900 (I think so, but not sure on this one) stop.

Br

Sounds neat,got pics?

Sorry,

forgot to add in first post. Here are pictures. BTW I think this is only part of strop. I think lien or other leather is missing as you can see hook or leather holder is missing however I need to say leather is REALLY NICE. I hope it will be a good strop.

Looks like horse butt,once perhaps a great strop,is that a major hack mark in the exact center?

Yes,

it is in center.

May not be a lot you can do with it

It's hard to see the cut, but if it's bad you can always cut it in half (or fold and suspend it) and make a paddle or adjustable loom strop out of it (if you'd have or find one that needs the leather replaced).

Looks like horse shell, a shame to waste good leather.

That is, if it is a cut. If there is a patch (or more) of leather hacked out, it may be possible to sand it down. I recently restored a horse shell strop and the leather is surprisingly uniform throughout. You might end up with a slight pot hole, but if you know how to strop this should be no problem. It's hard to judge from the pictures though.

For sanding, I'd suggest going through grits 360-800. Maybe for some serious restoration even lower. Afterwards (assuming it's slightly dried out) rub a little bit of neatsfoot oil in your palms and rub it evenly on the surface and let it hang and dry for a couple of days.

Oh, no idea about either manufacturer or retailer on my part, sorry. But yes, it seems to miss the linen.

Would it be possible to sand down the back side of this strop to a smooth enough surface to be useable?


I have done this with some success in the past. If you can finish leather on one side, you should be able to finish it on the other side.

Originally Posted by mrsell63

Would it be possible to sand down the back side of this strop to a smooth enough surface to be useable?


I have done this with some success in the past. If you can finish leather on one side, you should be able to finish it on the other side.

Well, yes and no!

One side is the flesh side, the other is the skin side - in most leathers. The skin side is the most durable side, but the other side can be a pleasure to use, as you have found, if sanded (I use a series of well-seasoned DMTs to avoid any grit contamination) fine enough - it can have a very, very slight nap to it that is good to strop on. Dovo (and the variant strops that look like Dovo strops) made from undyed vegetable tanned cowhide have had this treatment mechanically applied. the reason for this is that the skin side of cows is prone to all sorts of irregularities and marks, so it isn't very economical - a lot has to be discarded. To avoid this the Dovo-like strops are 'milled' - ie the skin surface is lightly abrade, not right through to the flesh, but enough to take care of most of the irregularities and make a homogeneous-looking hide. Of course, the pores that give the skin it's pattern are milled off, so they are mechanically re-applied with a patterned roller, leaving that plush-feeling leather.

A lot of leathers are of the 'split' variety though. This means that a thick piece of leather is split into two thinner pieces by going through a skiving machine. Only one side has the skin surface - the other is just flesh. An artificial skin surface is sprayed or otherwise applied to this bit of flesh leather and then it is rolled under pressure with the upper drum having a 'pore' pattern on it to make it look like skin, so yes, you can re-finish the top layer but it takes machinery to do it.

In both the above examples it must be noted that the strongest part of the leather is the skin (or 'grain') side and just below it - it holds the leather together - so it is rare to mill it all off if the flesh side is naturally very loose, fibrous and soft - otherwise you could theoretically pull this type apart by using too much force, as it provides little cohesion. The type chosen for splitting is usually a thick, tough leather with good cohesion throughout and tight fibres. If the leather is thick enough, it can be split into multiple layers, the lower layers being more fibrous are used to make suede.

Horse shell is a type of leather that really needs no sanding. In fact, it is unlike other leathers because the 'shell' is hidden in the hide of the rump of the horse and needs to be exposed. The shell is a layer of flat, fibrous muscle that is revealed by passing the horse butt through a splitting machine which effectively removes the skin layer, so the leather is the same all the way through. Technically, you cannot re-face this leather as it has no face side (aka 'skin' or 'grain' side) to begin with! Sanding would reveal more muscle tissue and I suppose if the sanding was fine enough the strop could then be lathered and smoothed with a bottle in the old barber-style of reconditioning a strop.

Regards,
Neil

Originally Posted by proximus26

Hello all good people,

I bought Weiffenbach strop and wondering if anyone has any experience with this company. It is old, probably 1900 (I think so, but not sure on this one) stop.

Br

It is an old company and you are correct about the date - it was established in Adrian, Michigan by George U Weiffenbach, Charles G Hart (a banker and president of the company), Byron L Shaw and Paul J Miller. The company was formerly known as habanix Leather Products and became known as The Gibford-Weiffenbach Company, Manufacturers of Leather goods. In the early years, Michigan had a readily available supply of bark for tanning, so that became one of the principal industries there.

They made quite a number of different types of strop, with trademarks such as 'RED-E' and 'ZULU CHIEF'. In the 1920s the company used a trademark that was simply a replica signature - 'Peter Bain' - and their trade listings referred to them as makers of personal leather belts. US General Pershing was an admirer of the British 'Sam Browne' belts and ordered it to be worn by marines in the American Expeditionary Force in WW2, it was often referred to as a 'Peter Bain' belt after the G-W Co manufacturer. The belts were made of cordovan leather, like the strops.

Their line-up of strops included single barber-strap strops with the classic cut-ends and no handle, such as yours, the same but with one side treated with an abrasive, and double strops. I can't see any evidence on yours that the hanging tab ever included a fabric strop - is it a bit loose? It would have to be loose enough to accommodate the non-ruberised flattened tubular fire-hose weave that was used at the time (as an aside, non-rubberised fire hose made from pure linen was used by the fire brigade once - it tended to swell when saturated so it carried water well and was easy to roll up into a small space.

In 1915 George U Weiffenbach filed a patent for a swivel clamp:





Regards,
Neil