Thread: Linen Restore

Hi everyone,

I'm sure this has been brought up before, but does anyone have any tricks on how to flatten the linen back down on my 3'' strops? The two pictured below are curled upward near the top, and downward near the handle, although the pictures do the problem no justice. The leather sides are flat, no problems there. My razors will not lay flat on these unless a lot of pressure is applied to the razor, & I don't like any downward force when I strop. Also, is there any way to prevent this before it happens? Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Iron with alot of steam? I havn't tried it.. Just a thought.

Sounds good on paper, but I wonder if that would melt it? I wish I had an old one to use as a guinea pig.

As far as I know linen won't melt but just singe/burn from heat if you leave the iron in one spot too long. Synthetics just might melt, so are you sure what the material actually is? If it is linen,I could see no harm in trying it with the iron set on the linen setting using lots of steam and, as always, keep the iron moving. The use the iron without the steam on to dry it a bit and hang to air dry the rest of the way. I have not done this with linen so cannot say if it would work for sure.

I have used this method on hard wool felt that had raised bumps from being spotted with water. It did work for that.

Bob

Originally Posted by Firefighter2

Sounds good on paper, but I wonder if that would melt it? I wish I had an old one to use as a guinea pig.

On that subject, I'd like to try a strop made out of guinea pig leather...

Originally Posted by BobH

As far as I know linen won't melt but just singe/burn from heat if you leave the iron in one spot too long. Synthetics just might melt, so are you sure what the material actually is? If it is linen,I could see no harm in trying it with the iron set on the linen setting using lots of steam and, as always, keep the iron moving. The use the iron without the steam on to dry it a bit and hang to air dry the rest of the way. I have not done this with linen so cannot say if it would work for sure.

I have used this method on hard wool felt that had raised bumps from being spotted with water. It did work for that.

Bob

I'm not sure what the material actually is, but the strops are SRD latigo, if that helps.

I think Howard has the right answer. For 5 bucks to replace the material strop it is not worth trying to fix.

Bob

Thanks guys, I had no idea they were only $5.00. I think I'll try the iron thing, if I wreck it I'll only be out 5 bucks. If it works, all the better!