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I bought a vintage leather strop at an antique shop. It's got some dark spots, and I can't tell if it's dirt or something like old leather conditioner. Should I use some leather shampoo to clean the strop before I use it?
Also, the strop has a smoother side and a rougher side to the leather. Will the rougher side do the same job that a cloth strop would do?
Cheers,
Michael
Use some leather cleaner according to directions and it should be okay, dont expect every spot and stain to come out, these were very popular in their day, use it and see what happens.
Is it just one leather component ? The smooth side was the top grain and the rough side the split of the hide. Some guys use a rough strop. Some paste the rough side and use that when they feel they need it. I've always used the smooth side and the linen or whatever fabric. I've tried some rough strops that were made that way on purpose but I've never really liked them enough to stick with them.
It is just one leather component. As an aside, the leather also passes through some sort of metal casing partway through, sort of like a rope would pass through a pulley. The metal casing has a ring at the end that presumably hooks on to something to keep it stationary. Then you can pull one end of the strop to expose more of the rough side, or the other end of the strop to expose more of the smooth side. Would I be better off cutting the metal casing off so the strop would have more usable length to it? It only has 1.5 feet of usable leather right now, and removing the casing would add another 6 inches or so.
18" is plenty of length, leave it as it is.
*Good* ...I wasn't looking forward to going at that metal casing with a hacksaw.
What do you call that kind of strop anyway? I'm not sure if I described it well enough. Here's what it looks like from the side:
_o_
[=]
| |
| o
|
|
o
The circles at the bottom are metal rings that you use to pull the strop through the metal casing. The metal casing is the [=] part at the top. The circle at the top is the ring on top of the metal casing that you attach to a hook.
Sure would like to see a picture of your new strop, if at all possible. The other fella's who posted gave you good advice, I just want to check it out.