Restored strop and turned brush

Continuing from this thread I wanted to give you some pictures of the process in my first turning endeavor and the end result. The wood is walnut and I ended up having to (twice) finish the piece in 5 coats of pure tung oil, a few coats of shellac, and then five coats of marine spray urethane.

This was my first time turning anything and I am very happy with the results. The first two pictures are the turned wood handle. One of them is next to the walnut chunk that it came from. The next two pictures are with the handle covered in just tung oil (probably about four by this time). The last pictures (with the 26mm knot) are with the coats all done and the knot epoxied.

I want to thank everyone who helped me with the questions I asked about finishing this piece. Shellac was the key component and I truly appreciate you helping me with it.

BTW: I made this for a friend who I converted to straight shaving about a year ago.

Here are some pictures of a strop I found in a blacksmith antique shop. I am fairly pleased with how this came out (particularly the linen and buckle) but I'm still trying to get the leather back to a more supple state. Any suggestions? Here are some before and after pictures.

Neatsfoot oil for the leather.

You can clean the leather using a tallow based soap(see the barber manual in wiki) or using saddle soap.

I've used saddle soap at least three or four times on it. I then tried Fromm's a couple of applications and even some conditioner. I'll give neatsfoot a try if I can dig some up.

i got a read imp strop that had hard spots in the leather and i worked netsfoot oil and rolled it back and forth on a 1 1/2 inch pipe then put more neetsfoot on and let it set now i can ues the strop .

Interesting that the neatsfoot worked out the hardspots. Another interesting thing about this strop is that it has a brown dye (or something) that keeps coming off whenever I rub it with soap or conditioner. It will completely coat a rag in a couple swipes. I'm not sure if it's a dye that was applied that didn't set in. I don't think it's rot because it doesn't really crumble and the leather is actually somewhat flexible.

Neatsfoot trial here I come.

Not to resurrect a dead thread but I wanted to post about the neatsfoot oil for future knowledge; It did the trick. It seemed to get rid of the inconsistencies in the leather and moisten the "dead spots".