Thread: Restore strop made of genuine shell, glossy surface, a bit stiff

Just picked up an old strop on the bay. I offered almost nothing and nobody else wanted it. It was very dirty so I took it apart and carefully went over it went saddle soap and very little water, think slightly moist sponge. Once clean you can read that it is a "Royal Colt, Genuine Shell, $2.00", with a very nice canvas/linen second strop which also cleaned up very well.

The leather looks good and clean now, but the surface is a bit hard hard and glossy. I don't like the way the razor sounds when it slides on it. Not sure about the next step. I have not yet put any neatsfoot oil on, although I am tempted. I have seen references to sanding a glossy strop carefully with some 400 wet to return it to life. When did the saddle soap, I gently used the green pad side of Scotchbrite pads to work up a goey slimy brownish muck, which I wiped off with lots of dry towels. The strop was then allowed to slowly air dry flat in my cool garage for a couple of days.

Before I ruin what looks like a horse shell strop with great potential I wanted consult with the experts here. Any thoughts about the best steps to bring this thing back to its former glory would be appreciated.

I restored a horse shell strop with advice from this thread.
http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...age-strop.html

Great advice here. Even though one of the gentleman said that the lather you would rub on to the strop should contain Tallow, I used a lather from Bigelow, and it worked just fine. Another thing that I did, and I don't know if it is recommended, but I did it anyway....I added the lather and then I stropped my razor with the lather on it. It seemed to really clean up the leather and help add moisture to it. When I did this I often found brown gunk in the hollow of my razor, but the leather was less glossy, and much more supple afterwards. +1 on the advice of laying it flat and rolling a jar on top of it. I did not have to go with the "nuclear option" of submerging it in water. Any of you old timers who can correct my methods or offer words of caution to my advice would be great, because I am pretty green.

Anyway, the above thread has some great advice.

glossy is not necessarily a bad thing. Dirty, Gritty, Nasty, THOSE are bad things! I have an old shell strop, that the surface has been burnished to a high shine though who knows how many decades of constant use. Does it provide for less draw on some razors? Yup. and More on some others!

Before messing with it, experiment with various tensions and pressures while stropping, and see if you cant find a sweet spot where it performs in the "amazing" zone!

I lather mine heavily, let it sit overnight, wipe off the excess then rub it with a moist paper towel to further get rid of the remaining residue. You will find that the razor will pick up some brown stain from the strop, but it can easily be wiped off the blade.

Thank you all! The strop is now lying on the countertop covered in a generous layer of Tabac original lather. stand by for a progress report.

Iwasaki in his book describes a method of softening a hardened strop

7. How to Soften a Hard Strop
(1) Fill a washbasin with water and submerge the strop, without its metal parts, in the water and thoroughly knead it. Remove the strop from the water, and then by pressing and kneading it, it will soften.

(2) Lay the wet strop flat on a board. As it dries, it will shrink like when you dry kelp, so if you take a beer bottle and roll/press the face of the strop it should flatten out.

(3) If it starts to ripple, sandwich it between two boards and press from the front, and it will straighten out.

(4) Apply neetsfoot oil to the surface of the damp strop.

(5) Allow it to dry for two to three days and it should be soft.

(6) If you apply too much oil, soak the strop and the water-soluble neetsfoot oil will be drawn out.

The overnight drying of a generous coating of lather made an enormous difference. The strop was already very clean after all my saddle soap scrubbing the other day, but the lather treatment changed everything. The strop is still very slick and smooth, but it is not like glass coated. There is a totally different feeling of "communication" between the razor and the strop. The razor slides far more smoothly, and it feels like the strop is sort of working with it, not against it. Thanks again! I will proceed to try a stropping with lather on the strop as well, to work it in a little bit more.

Most on here disagree with strop lathering, but I've had great results with it. The only downside is that the residue can build up on the blade. You can either remove more residue with a wet paper towel or just wipe it off the blade with a piece of toilet paper. With additional applications you'll find the draw will increase.

I am not planning on making strop lathering a routine part of my mornings. I just figured I'd do it once or twice to work the strop a bit further.

In some of the old texts on tanning leather they describe the process of "stuffing" the leather that has just come out of the tanning pits. The first step is to soften up the leather by applying water and then beating it to make it more flexible. Then rubbing it with a "slicker" ( bone or glass) with a mix of tallow & oil ( 50/50 mix) or putting the leather into a drum filled with 50% by weight leather and 50% by weight of tallow/oil mix for approx 30 minutes. Tallow & oil, that's what is in a lot of shaving soaps. Perhaps the old strops have oxidized some of the tallow & oil over time?

Thanks for this thread. I have one vintage strop that has a very hard, glass like surface. I will try the shaving soap routine on it but first I will be putting on some water to soften it up a bit and also to open up some of the pores/fibers. I will also slicker/bottle/rub it afterward to burnish the surface & create a uniform surface.