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Nick Repair

Of course I nicked my strop.

Kinda minor. No flap to surgically remove. I sanded it down with fine sand paper. I rubbed the area with a fine honing stone. Massaged oil onto the whole strop. It’s totally smooth now and not super noticeable.

But. Now there’s a “slow” spot where the repair is. I can feel it grab the blade when I run over it.

1) is this bad? Like will it damage my edges? 2) if so, is there a way to bring that repaired spot back to the same slickness as the rest of the strop?
 
I haven’t yet. Although I rubbed it with a leather wipe that has wax in it. I was thinking about shoe polish but I only have black.
 
Maybe one of the professional strop makers can chime in here, but my experience has been that adding oil led to markedly increased draw. I have a small suspicion that perhaps the slow down has more to do with the application of oil rather than the sanding.

edit: Oops, didn't read the part about applying oil to the whole strop. My bad Chango, please ignore the above. It may not help you, but I'll just drop my blurb. I have a Horween Cordovan Strop that I bought 10 years ago used. It had a sticky bottom side (which I suspect was the reason for selling the exceptional strop at a discount price). Now the whole strop is slick as a glass and here's how I perform maintenance. 1) Scrub down with a shoe brush. 2) Apply cordovan shoe polish and scrub again. 3) Wipe down the strop with microfiber until the purple color stops coming out 4) Spray the leather with fine water spray. Wipe with hand. This makes leather supple. 5) Coat the palm of your hand with a tiny amount of carnauba wax. Make sure the wax does not contain abrasives. Then wipe a portion of the strop with your palm in one smooth motion. It'll cover maybe 6 inches of the strop. Repeat, up and down the strop 6) Wipe down any excess with microfiber 7) With clean hand, rub the strop up and down vigorously until warm.
Might not help you with your problematic patch, but maybe it will? It'll definitely help condition your strop.
 
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I personally don’t like strops that are muddy or have a heavy draw so with that said try a very small amount of wax/polish on that area, I use Venetian shoe cream on every strop I own, once every few months I take a warm cotton cloth and wipe not scrub my strops this process hydrates the leather then once or even twice a year I apply the shoe cream to a cotton cloth ( small amount ) and lightly apply to the strop.

I doubt I apply much maybe a tsp of it for all four strop total, you have to remember once you add oil or whatever it’s in there and no getting out so proceed slow.
 
My two cents - if you took a piece of top grain off the leather, well it is just gone and won’t grow back. It can change the feel but probably work just fine. There are not any products or additives that I think would change the issue you mentioned, instead adding products is more likely to produce new issues. Wipe it good with a barely damp rag, rub it good with the palm of your hand, and strop away is my best suggestion. Use will help smooth that out and lay the newly exposed fibers from the nick/sanding down. It should mellow with use over time.
 
When my strops sometimes change feel during stropping, I rub them with a clean towel then rub them with a showered or washed clean palm of my hand. This usually works fine for me. I have a latigo leather strop that sometimes gets uneven with a heavy drag. Wiping this strop transfers tanning residue color onto the clean towel. I can restore even draw on this strop by wiping with a rung-out clean wet towel. The strop gets its surface wet, but not soaked through. I air dry the strop on a flat surface followed by wiping, when dry, with a dry clean towel then palm wiping. This usually restores normal strop feel. I do not use any leather treatments or conditioners, but would do so for conditioning a very dry brittle vintage strop. After several years of straight razor shaving, I have never needed to add conditioner to a modern strop. When conditioning stiff old strops, less is more and being patient working slowly is your friend.
 
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