Reconditioning an old strop.
Well, my wife wants to get me something for your tenth anniversary. So I suggested a SRD Premium one strop. While we are waiting for them to get them back in stock I picked up an old strop at an antique mall. It say's on the bottom of the strop, Hess Hair Milk Lab., St. Paul, Minn. with a 100 surrounded by a wreath. On the top of the strop it say's Keen-Edge, under that there is a picture of a Clydesdale horse and it reads Genuine Imported Clydesdale Shell. When I first saw it I thought, Oh my god. Looked like a small child had tried to color in the whole face of the strop with a sharp object. Covered in scratch's from just below the top printing ,to just above the bottom printing. However, upon further inspection, the scratch's were no deep at all. you really couldn't feel them if you ran you finger nail over the strop. You could feel that with all of the scratch's( plenty of them) that the surface felt rougher then it should. It had hope. I took it home, and after going over it for a while, I decided sand paper was in order. I laid it down on my work bench (flat surface) and took a wooden block (another flat surface), and some 600grit paper. I was out of 400, or I would have started there.Anyway, the 600 didn't do much because it would clog right away so it was slow going, and I used a lot of 600 grit paper, but I got the scratch's out and any high or low spots. there was a crease right across the middle of the strop where it looked like someone dropped something on edge onto the strop. So I drew a line with pencil on the back of the strop opposite the crease in the front. I folded a paper towel up so I had a cushion,and placed it under the front of the strop and with a piece of polished antler I rubbed it from the back, and then flipped it over and sanded some more. After a couple of time the crease was barely noticeable and you couldn't fell it with your finger. Now the strop was pretty smooth and flat at this point, but I broke out the 3M polishing paper and polished it up to 12000 grit. Since then I have been running the palm of my hand over it whenever I get a chance. It is really flat, and very smooth to the touch now. I think it's ready.
I don't know what to do about the linen strop. It's got a little surface dirt on it from just being old, but it doesn't look like it's ever been used. It is flexable, however it seems a little stiff. I don't know if this is normal or not. Could you all give me some suggestions on how to treat the linen strop. I think I'll have a nice strop when it's all done. Thank all.