Thread: Linen Strop Cleaning and Reconditioning

Originally Posted by Geezer

Thanks guys for good information!
Here's my method, Works well, for me ...if you have two linen components. Old pants hangers and the closures of them were bent to increase tension.:
Attachment 187365
Washed with washing machine then spotted with a brush and laundry detergent back into the machine for another wash and rinsing. The back single got a weight also.
~Richard

We certainly know who wears the pants on this forum.

I have a Koken Strop That I have used for a while. I used a very small amount of Fromm strop conditioner on the hand finish imported shell horse hide No.1 selection & it has worked like a champ.
The linen side is very stiff fire hose style strop. I cleaned it with Oxy-Clean & let it soak for a few hours. The strop is pretty clean but still very stiff. Is this a treatment some makers put on the linen?

Slawman

Phrank: your's is the first pig skin strop I have seen other than mine. I have an Ashcraft pigskin #50 that was made here in my home town. It is from
the 1950s 0r 60s. I'm not as practiced as you other guys but I like it quite well. I treated it one time with neats foot oil.

Anyone know what Royal linen is and how one would clean it?

I understand the thread is a few years old, but perhaps this may help the next guy.

Linen is a loose weave fabric. All natural weave fabrics will shrink/ tighten up when drying. But you can stretch it back to the original shape/ length & width easily when wet/damp, or with steam.

Folks do this all the time with clothing, it is called Blocking. Usually a wire or wooden fame is used or pinned or tacked in place, like some tanning processes.

Just clamp one side and pull it back to the needed length, as it dries, or you can make a simple jig with a board and some clamps to allow it to dry to the specific length. When wet or steamed, it will stretch quite a bit. Or try a steam iron and stretch it.

Personally I do not paste, linen. A separate pasted strop is a much better solution, and really easy and inexpensive to make. Vintage linen or linen in general (though hard to find now days) is mildly abrasive and capable of adding some polish to a bevel and edge as well as cleaning. Seems a waste to paste vintage linen.

With the Linen strops being well over 50 yrs old; a 'thread ' only being 2 or 3 years old shouldn't matter![emoji41]


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