Fixing a dried out strop?

[Lereas]

I got a short hanging strop from Larry over at WhippedDog a few months ago. I got really busy and ended up just using my DE razor most of the time for the last couple months...and then last night when I went to strop my straight, I found the leather was all dry and stiff.

I tried to use some of my lather to work it in, but that didn't seem to help right away.

Is there a way to revive this strop without going out and buying something, or is it dead?

 

[Leche]

If it's not cracked or crumbling it should be savable. If the lather isn't working you will need to step it up to some leather conditioner or oil.

 

[Lereas]

How much lather should I use? Just keep applying it and rubbing it in until the leather is better?

 

[Munxcub]

get some neetsfoot oil, that took my old dry strop and made it all supple and tasty.

 

[LarryAndro]

Of course, try to revive it. If unsuccessful, I will replace it. Just email me.

 

[Mink]

Fromm's Strop Dressing

All new straight razor/strop users will need something like this. You should also pick up some 400 or 600 (both) wet sandpaper. You will nick the strop and it can dry out. Sand out the nicks or dry patches that have glazed over and then rub in the dressing. It will need to dry for at least 24 hours, but unless the damage is severe, it's very recoverable.

 

[Lereas]

Larry is the ultimate master of the B&B forums. It's like Beetlejuice: you mention him and he's there taking care of you. So awesome!

I'll see if I can find some oil around town and if it fixes it...

Straights may just not be for me, so I don't want you to waste an extra strop on me. I just finally got the straight from my grand-father-in-law that was given to him by his father in law in Ukraine, and wanted to give it a spin. He gave me a strop with it, and it was crazy old and worn out. The razor was still pretty dang sharp, but it does need some work. I gave it five strokes on each side with a barber hone and it seemed to help, but I probably needs to do a bunch of stropping on newspaper or on chromium on balsa. if that fails, I'll let someone who knows what they're doing have a go, though I'm not keen on sending it out anywhere. All in all, though, I've found that I have an exceedingly hard time shaving around my mouth and chin with a straight, and so far no amount of practice has fixed it, so I may just settle with my DE and keep the straights...apparently in Russian the general term for straight razors translates out to "Dangerous razor"!

 

[BrushJockey]

get some neetsfoot oil, that took my old dry strop and made it all supple and tasty.

+1

Neatsfoot will rehydrate as well as protect from moisture damage