timwcic
"Look what I found"
With the success of my first strop restoration, it was time for a second. I passed on a few strops until this one popped up on my radar. A Craftsman shell with a linen?? second in decent condition. It has two good logos with only minor damage. Some abuse scratches but no deep cuts or rips on the leather and only age grim on the linen. This is worthy of a restro. Started by breaking down and giving the second a soaking bath. A few drops of laundry soap and warm water in a tub so in can lay flat. In did have a curl memory that had to go. Over the course of a few hours, and scrubbing with a nylon brush every 15 minutes, decades of grim disappeared. After a good rinse, and to prevent any shrinking, I hung with a five pound weight over night to dry. Time to give the leather some love. Started by sanding with 220 grit wet/dry paper. Used a wet sponge to control water on the surface and high quality paper so I had no stray grit end up in the leather. The 220 leveled out all the scratches without cutting thru the shell. Also chamfered the edges at the same time. Did a progression up to 1000 grit. To keep the vintage feel, I re-dyed using pre-zip code, flea market black leather dye. Burnished the working surface over a large magnum glass bottle to loosen it up. Over the week, a few drinks of Neetsfoot oil to get the leather supple and the draw that I like, burnishing between applications of oil. Not to much work but worth the effort.. last picture hanging with the Millers, Tony and Neil
