I pick up this Monark a few weeks back and I am looking for some help.I want to know if anyone out there can recondition it to "ready to use" status. i have tried saddle soap, Lexol leather conditioner,Rubbing it with a bottle with only marginal results.I have not sucessfully restored a strop before and I don't want to damage this one trying to make it better.If anyone is interested in fixing this up for me ( not for free of course) please PM me.
Need some help with a strop
- Thread starter spanx
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- #3
Wrinkles and stiffness are the issues with the strop
That's a really thick piece of leather (or at least it appears so in the photo). Making it super-pliable might be a challenge.
Do you not have a cheap razor you could try it on? Maybe the strop is perfectly okay as is?
Mike
Do you not have a cheap razor you could try it on? Maybe the strop is perfectly okay as is?
Mike
That is a thick strop, so it is inherently stiff. It has also been textured - rolled under pressure against diamond-patterned rollers - which makes it even stiffer. The old russian-tanned strops were famed for being stiff - lathering them and rolling them with a bottle, like you have done, was recommended to break them in. According to your preferences, you might have to repeat multiple times over a long period.
To get rid of wrinkles and raise a nap you use a nice, flat pumice stone after lathering, leaving the lather in place, then you wipe it down and relather. If you use a rich soap like woolfat soap you can leave the lather on to go dry, then wipe it off the next day - best to weight the ends of the strop to prevent it cupping whilst drying if you do this, and to dry it in a towel under pressure if you don't.
You don't need the pumicing step - it will get rid of minor wrinkles, but also reduce the pattern a bit - and that strop is meant to have that pattern.
Very fine wrinkles aren't that important - if they don't affect the edge of the razor its best to try and live with them.
Regards,
Neil.
PS: I wouldn't try using lots of neatsfoot oil on it - you will increase the draw so much the razor will drag painfully slowly over the surface of the strop. If you are going to use neatsfoot, it is best to put a few drops on a rolled-up slightly damp bit of cloth, and quickly rub it over the strop to get an even cover. Let it get taken in by the leather - overnight - and test the draw. It is easy to repeat the application, but hard to get too much oil back out of the leather.
To get rid of wrinkles and raise a nap you use a nice, flat pumice stone after lathering, leaving the lather in place, then you wipe it down and relather. If you use a rich soap like woolfat soap you can leave the lather on to go dry, then wipe it off the next day - best to weight the ends of the strop to prevent it cupping whilst drying if you do this, and to dry it in a towel under pressure if you don't.
You don't need the pumicing step - it will get rid of minor wrinkles, but also reduce the pattern a bit - and that strop is meant to have that pattern.
Very fine wrinkles aren't that important - if they don't affect the edge of the razor its best to try and live with them.
Regards,
Neil.
PS: I wouldn't try using lots of neatsfoot oil on it - you will increase the draw so much the razor will drag painfully slowly over the surface of the strop. If you are going to use neatsfoot, it is best to put a few drops on a rolled-up slightly damp bit of cloth, and quickly rub it over the strop to get an even cover. Let it get taken in by the leather - overnight - and test the draw. It is easy to repeat the application, but hard to get too much oil back out of the leather.
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- #7
After some conversing with Ambrose I tried some mink oil.After a couple applications I then worked the leather over a hand rail.i think that the combination of vigorously working the leather and several applications of oil while working it was what was needed. I was just going too easy on the strop treating it like a thin one.It's plenty pliable now with the heavy draw i was looking for.Still not perfect but with time and many,many laps she should break in just fine.
