Thread: 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.

I was just at an antique shop yesterday and was able to check out the linen on a very old strop.
There was such a layer of built up gunk on it that it would be fair to say that a razor had not made contact with the linen at all for quite some time.
Also, I have an antique 2 piece barber's strop that had a piece of canvas fire hose and it was in similar condition. It had been used so much that the hose had worn on the edges to the point of the fabric being worn through.
My point here is that apparently stropping on most any reasonably smooth surface must have some redeeming results?
Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate using strops in that condition. I beleive that whatever the method you use to get the gunk off, as long as it is done with care, probably will leave the linen in a better usable condition than it was when you started.
It will probably look nicer too!

If you can separate the leather and cloth (some were sewn together) separate them and soak the linen in warm water with a little detergent. agitate it after a bit, repeat a few times then finally rinse it with plain water, repeat as needed, let it dry flat. i usually iron it flat before reassembly. this has worked for me several times, YMMV

jim

I bought a couple of old combination linen/leather strops last year, one genuine shell (so smooooooth and quite hard/slick) and one Russian (thick and soft). Both were extremely dirty with fairly dry leather but no particular cracks. First I cleaned the leather with saddle soap a couple of times (very little water, mostly just moist) and wiped it off. I did do a little light wet sanding on the shell. I followed that with brushing shaving lather on them and letting it sit for a few minutes before wiping it off. Once cleaned, I rubbed them with a tiny bit of neatsfoot oil on a piece of cloth. Then I left them folded in a clean kitchen towel under a 2x4 with some weights on the floor for a week until I figure they had dried. They both came back to life beautifully.

The leather and the linen were bolted together on the swivel so it was easy to take them apart. The linen was very dirty but not damaged. I let the linen soak in a tub of water and detergent for over night. That didn't do much so I threw them in the washing machine with bleach and detergent and ironed them flat afterwards. I was worried they might come out all curled up or separated but no. It worked fine. They are still no where near white, but they are far better than they were when I got them. Both have become two of my favorite strops, and I use one of them most every morning.

Thank you all very much. I'll try washing it. I think this is going to be a very nice strop.

Interesting recommendation to soak a vintage linen strop in water when most of the older instructions for linen strops advise avoiding exposure to excessive moisture.

The linen should be treated no different than any other fabric item that is really dirty. Good old detergent and hot water and a good scrub brush and some elbow grease are all you need.

The reason they advised not to soak in water or avoid moisture is because the old linen strops came loaded with chalk or similar and water would remove that. Getting it loaded up again is probably not so easy.

i thought the old strops had a paraffin/chalk mixture. all my newer strops have nice supple cloth, some canvas, some linen all good.

jim

According to the A.B. Moler Barber's Manual from my collection, linen strops should be kept as dry as possible as moisture will swell the strop making it rough.

But it will dry again and ironing on high heat will make it softer.