Restoring a stropping surface.

[Brooksie967]

I decided to restore a vintage strop. I sanded it down, cleaned it, re-applied oil etc. My issue is that before sanding it had a wonderful slick tight grain surface with next to no draw, now the leather doesn't seem nearly as slick/hard and smooth. Is there any way to ever get that back?

When stropping I can see the 'grain' of the leather move in one direction when moving a razor away from me and back flat again when drawing the razor back.

 

[BDF]

It sounds like you have made a suede strop by sanding it. To get a smoother finish, use a finer grade of sandpaper. The softer the surface of the strop is the worse it is going to sand though so you might want to use a solvent and get as much of the oil back out of the leather as is possible before re- sanding it; mineral spirits or lighter fluid will work pretty well to draw the oil out. Once the leather is dry again (only a few minutes for the majority of the solvent to evaporate), work through finer grits until at least 600 for a light draw. You will be able to see the surface start to shine a bit by looking lengthwise down the leather as you move toward the finer grits. Once you have the finish and draw you want, put a touch of tallow based shaving lather on the strop, let it dry and wipe the soap residue off the surface. This will increase the draw a little bit from what it was before using the lather.

I am tinkering with a piece of horse hide right now and a 1/4 sheet orbital sander works really well to cut the surface. If left with a 220 to 400 grit surface, there is quite a bit of draw and I can see the surface of the leather change when rubbed in different directions (it really is suede at that point). By 1000 grit most of that is gone and the strop will quickly take on a shine with a minimal amount of razor stropping.

Brian

I decided to restore a vintage strop. I sanded it down, cleaned it, re-applied oil etc. My issue is that before sanding it had a wonderful slick tight grain surface with next to no draw, now the leather doesn't seem nearly as slick/hard and smooth. Is there any way to ever get that back?

When stropping I can see the 'grain' of the leather move in one direction when moving a razor away from me and back flat again when drawing the razor back.

 

[Brooksie967]

Thanks for the reply! I did everything you mentioned already except using the alcohol to remove all the oil. Do you think rubbing alcohol would suffice?
The surface definitely isn't suede any more, just not as smooth as I would like. I really like almost no draw! I want this thing slick and shiny

 

[BDF]

Alcohol will not act as a very good solvent for most oil but 91% rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl alcohol) will help and is easy to try. Even if you have to wipe the strop down 2 or 3 times it is probably easier to do that using a petroleum solvent. Gasoline works too but you have to be careful because it has a tenancy to dry out the leather too much and of course is somewhat hazardous to use (although almost any solvent you will find will be flammable). You can give the alcohol a try just don't soak the strop because there is still 9% water in that mix of alcohol. If you can find 99% rubbing alcohol that would be even better but it can be tough to get locally in reasonable size containers. And of course lighter fluid (naptha) is readily available in local stores, works very well, comes in an easy to use container and it is not expensive.

You won't want to remove all the oil from the leather though because it will become brittle. If the strop is leaving dust on the razor after using it then the strop is too dry.

Brian

Thanks for the reply! I did everything you mentioned already except using the alcohol to remove all the oil. Do you think rubbing alcohol would suffice?
The surface definitely isn't suede any more, just not as smooth as I would like. I really like almost no draw! I want this thing slick and shiny

 

[Brooksie967]

Alcohol will not act as a very good solvent for most oil but 91% rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl alcohol) will help and is easy to try. Even if you have to wipe the strop down 2 or 3 times it is probably easier to do that using a petroleum solvent. Gasoline works too but you have to be careful because it has a tenancy to dry out the leather too much and of course is somewhat hazardous to use (although almost any solvent you will find will be flammable). You can give the alcohol a try just don't soak the strop because there is still 9% water in that mix of alcohol. If you can find 99% rubbing alcohol that would be even better but it can be tough to get locally in reasonable size containers. And of course lighter fluid (naptha) is readily available in local stores, works very well, comes in an easy to use container and it is not expensive.

You won't want to remove all the oil from the leather though because it will become brittle. If the strop is leaving dust on the razor after using it then the strop is too dry.

Brian

Brian, thanks for the info!! I think I'll go get some naptha and give that a try this weekend! You've been a great help and I'll make sure to let you know how it goes after this coming weekend.

 

[chuckr9]

Rubbing the surface with a glass bottle can smooth out the surface for a slight adjustment in draw. Wine bottle works for me, but not sure if red or white is best yet.

 

[Brooksie967]

Rubbing the surface with a glass bottle can smooth out the surface for a slight adjustment in draw. Wine bottle works for me, but not sure if red or white is best yet.

I've done the bottle thing and it did help. I think there is too much oil in the thing.

 

[Luc]

When I restored mine I used leather conditioner before the oil. It did wonders.

 

[alpster]

You can try some "Saddle Soap" It's used on fine shoes and boots to prepare the surface for leather conditioners. It is safe for leather. A soft bristle tooth brush works well with the saddle soap.

 

[Luc]

You can try some "Saddle Soap" It's used on fine shoes and boots to prepare the surface for leather conditioners. It is safe for leather. A soft bristle tooth brush works well with the saddle soap.

If there's like a gold print on the strop, the soap can remove it so be careful with it.

 

[Winblows]

When I've got my vintage Osgar No. 5, it was very dry and stiff. I gave it the lather/bottle treatment, but it didn't help much. So I gave it a vaseline oil/ bottle and now it works great.