SCOTCH SHELL - THE ANTISEPTIC - EVER SEEN ONE?

[BuddyLuh]

I was visiting my parents in Nova Scotia and there was an antique shop super close to their house so I had a look and found this gem.
Antique Scotch Shell (The Antiseptic) strop! Does anyone have any information on where it might have come from? or who produced them?

I also picked up a dispatch razor, sadly with a chip in the blade, I have since honed out the chip, but it is still barely visible where it lived, so she'll need another hone then need to do a triangle progression on my stones and test that beautiful razor out.

 

[exocet]

the strop is beautiful and seems in great condition, nice find !

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Whoa, Baby, you won the lottery!

The leather is good old Shell, looks in good condition and will clean up and make a great strop. Will need cleaning and hydration. Go slow with it, to not damage the shell finish.

The Holy Mole is the linen.

That is a Kanayama old school Flax Linen, one of the best linen made and super hard to find in good condition, pricy when you do.

You can tell by the leather tab sewn to the end, with original tan thread and the mark where the distinctive Kanayama hardware imprinted on the linen at the keeper.

It will need a good soaking and cleaning but will be a great performer and produce and maintain, a great shaving edge. I have a few and they are my favorite finishing linen.

You will need to carefully remove the leather tab, (in great shape, rare) by carefully cutting the threads under the leather, with an Exacto knife. Take some photos before you remove it so you can sew it back on and replicate the sewing pattern, easy with a double needle leather hand stitch. Use small needles and the same holes.

Soak the linen in a clean 5-gallon bucket with an ounce or two of Woolite or knock off Woolite, and cold water, (I use the one from the dollar store). Soak it overnight, lay flat and scrub with a stiff brush, (fingernail brush).

Dump your soak water, rinse and soak in clean cold water with a ¼ cup of baking soda in the 5-gallon bucket. Let soak another day in baking soda and cold water.

Baking soda will get into the weave and loosen all the dirt and soap and release it from the weave. That is the tough part of cleaning a linen strop, years of dust, soap and grime in the weave.

Repeat, soaking, scrubbing, rinsing until the rinse water is crystal clear. If you do not remove all the dirt and grit instead of polishing your bevel, you will be scratching it.

Get an old rolling pin from a thrift store or Dollar Store, hang it up high and roll the strop when it is a bit damp before it is completely dry. Roll so the strop makes a U. Gently add pressure as you roll, this will loosen the fibers and make the strop soft, it also stretches the strop back to original length. Do not roll when the linen is wet and stiff, or you will break the fibers, when damp almost dry the fibers will bend and loosen.

It will be a bright cream white color and will be as soft as an old sock when finished and will clean and polish a razor bevel very well.

Clean the leather strop with a good leather cleaner use cleaner sparingly with a damp sponge. Do not get aggressive with the shell face, or you will ruin it. Yours looks in good condition, just a bit dirty.

Rinse the sponge to remove the dirt and do not grind into the leather. Do not apply too much water, use a damp sponge. It may take you several sessions, (days, weeks) of cleaning with a damp sponge and clean cold water. Allow the strop to dry between cleaning, may take days. Here again look at your sponge rinse water to tell when it is clean.

After each session apply no more than a teaspoon of Neatsfoot or Olive oil to the strop face and back by dipping a cotton ball in the teaspoon of oil and rubbing and blotting on to the leather. Do not worry if the coverage is not even. It will absorb into the leather over night or in days.

Do not add more than a teaspoon at a time, it will rehydrate the leather and preserve the slick shell face. If you add too much oil at one time, it can clog the leather and cause it to rot. It can take weeks to rehydrate a vintage leather strop. It took years to dry out so take your time.

Should be a nice shell strop, but the gold is the flax linen. Nice find.

 

[BuddyLuh]

Whoa, Baby, you won the lottery!

The leather is good old Shell, looks in good condition and will clean up and make a great strop. Will need cleaning and hydration. Go slow with it, to not damage the shell finish.

The Holy Mole is the linen.

That is a Kanayama old school Flax Linen, one of the best linen made and super hard to find in good condition, pricy when you do.

You can tell by the leather tab sewn to the end, with original tan thread and the mark where the distinctive Kanayama hardware imprinted on the linen at the keeper.

It will need a good soaking and cleaning but will be a great performer and produce and maintain, a great shaving edge. I have a few and they are my favorite finishing linen.

You will need to carefully remove the leather tab, (in great shape, rare) by carefully cutting the threads under the leather, with an Exacto knife. Take some photos before you remove it so you can sew it back on and replicate the sewing pattern, easy with a double needle leather hand stitch. Use small needles and the same holes.

Soak the linen in a clean 5-gallon bucket with an ounce or two of Woolite or knock off Woolite, and cold water, (I use the one from the dollar store). Soak it overnight, lay flat and scrub with a stiff brush, (fingernail brush).

Dump your soak water, rinse and soak in clean cold water with a ¼ cup of baking soda in the 5-gallon bucket. Let soak another day in baking soda and cold water.

Baking soda will get into the weave and loosen all the dirt and soap and release it from the weave. That is the tough part of cleaning a linen strop, years of dust, soap and grime in the weave.

Repeat, soaking, scrubbing, rinsing until the rinse water is crystal clear. If you do not remove all the dirt and grit instead of polishing your bevel, you will be scratching it.

Get an old rolling pin from a thrift store or Dollar Store, hang it up high and roll the strop when it is a bit damp before it is completely dry. Roll so the strop makes a U. Gently add pressure as you roll, this will loosen the fibers and make the strop soft, it also stretches the strop back to original length. Do not roll when the linen is wet and stiff, or you will break the fibers, when damp almost dry the fibers will bend and loosen.

It will be a bright cream white color and will be as soft as an old sock when finished and will clean and polish a razor bevel very well.

Clean the leather strop with a good leather cleaner use cleaner sparingly with a damp sponge. Do not get aggressive with the shell face, or you will ruin it. Yours looks in good condition, just a bit dirty.

Rinse the sponge to remove the dirt and do not grind into the leather. Do not apply too much water, use a damp sponge. It may take you several sessions, (days, weeks) of cleaning with a damp sponge and clean cold water. Allow the strop to dry between cleaning, may take days. Here again look at your sponge rinse water to tell when it is clean.

After each session apply no more than a teaspoon of Neatsfoot or Olive oil to the strop face and back by dipping a cotton ball in the teaspoon of oil and rubbing and blotting on to the leather. Do not worry if the coverage is not even. It will absorb into the leather over night or in days.

Do not add more than a teaspoon at a time, it will rehydrate the leather and preserve the slick shell face. If you add too much oil at one time, it can clog the leather and cause it to rot. It can take weeks to rehydrate a vintage leather strop. It took years to dry out so take your time.

Should be a nice shell strop, but the gold is the flax linen. Nice find.

Oh wow, thank you SO much for all of the amazing information! That is a massive help.

That Linen is my best linen, in the best shape I took from my grandfather's old strop, I still have the shell, I was looking at it closer after reading your post and it is a made in Japan strop, I'll post pictures of my other strops including the shell I 'stole' the nice linen from.

I will have to do some cleaning because, like you said, it's been drying for years. I did have a tiny tube of solingen strop balm 'yellow' which I used the entire thing on all the strops pictured to bring some life back to them. My grandfather's old Shell that goes with the linen is in the worst shape by far, very hard, stiff and dry as all old heck. A few cuts too. Maybe with some TLC over the coming months I can put some life back into it.

I really appreciate your response

 

[BuddyLuh]

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Yea, those will clean up, just go slow.

Old Russian tanned leather is nice. I have an old Russian tanned, diamond cut back strop that I keep in the shop next to my honing bench. It is almost a ¼ inch thick. Every razor I hone gets stropped on that strop.

It was stiff when I got it but, after many applications of oil over a period of months, and rolling on a rolling pin it is clean, soft and flexible, a great strop. Oil will make it darker and the stamps not as readable, but performance is night and day.

The Japanese will also clean up, they are shell also and are great strops, It is what I keep in the bathroom and finish strop on daily, with vintage Kanayama flax linen. Cuts can be glued with CA glue on a tooth pick and clamped with a couple blocks of wood lined with wax paper. Try to avoid sanding shell, it removes the finish.

Great that you have your Grandfather strop, he had good taste in strops. You can bring it back to life and use it again.

Go slow, good luck.

 

[BuddyLuh]

Yea, those will clean up, just go slow.

Old Russian tanned leather is nice. I have an old Russian tanned, diamond cut back strop that I keep in the shop next to my honing bench. It is almost a ¼ inch thick. Every razor I hone gets stropped on that strop.

It was stiff when I got it but, after many applications of oil over a period of months, and rolling on a rolling pin it is clean, soft and flexible, a great strop. Oil will make it darker and the stamps not as readable, but performance is night and day.

The Japanese will also clean up, they are shell also and are great strops, It is what I keep in the bathroom and finish strop on daily, with vintage Kanayama flax linen. Cuts can be glued with CA glue on a tooth pick and clamped with a couple blocks of wood lined with wax paper. Try to avoid sanding shell, it removes the finish.

Great that you have your Grandfather strop, he had good taste in strops. You can bring it back to life and use it again.

Go slow, good luck.

Thanks again Brad! Very appreciated. That picture of the Belgium Shell is the leather from my Grandfathers strop, do you think it is possible to repair the cuts/nicks? I'll start oiling my strops every evening now to bring back some suppleness to them and pick up some woolite to give that linen a good cleaning asap

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Not every day, once maybe twice a week. Allow the oil to penetrate and re-hydrate the leather slowly. You will see the leather begin to darken and the oil absorb more uniformly.

Gently rolling the leather on a hanging rolling pin, after you get some oil in the leather, will also soften the leather and allow it to accept oil easier. Just go slow if you feel or hear any cracking, stop and allow the oil to penetrate further, wait days and try rolling again, bending a little more each time.

You do want to clean the surface, with a damp sponge and some good leather cleaner, mild soap. A clean dry paper towel will tell you if it is still releasing dirt. Add oil after cleaning.

You can glue down kicks and small cut with CA glue applied with a tooth pick. But hydrating will make most of them less noticeable to an edge.

Do not sand or you will ruin the shell finish.

 

[BuddyLuh]

Okay so CA Glue = Cyanoacrylate glue? I can do that. Will applying oil in the area of a glued cut make that glue fail much more quickly? Okay, noted, do NOT oil every day. Man so many good tips, I appreciate your experience and advice Brad, thanks so much!

I'm having a hard time visualizing how to use the rolling pin, would you hold the strop taut like you are going to strop a razor and roll the rolling pin on the strop? Or would I have my strop on a table and roll the rolling pin on that guy when he is soft enough?

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Yea, CA, super glue. Glue before oiling.

Oil will plump up a strop, even make stamps less noticeable, but improve finish.

Just hang a rolling pin from up high. I hung mine to my garage door with a couple pieces of para-cord, paid $2 for a pastry rolling pin from a thrift store.

Just go slow, start with just a slight bend and roll. The strop in the photo is a damp flax firehose. Again, if you feel any cracking, you are breaking the fibers. Add more oil and let it absorb.

 

[BuddyLuh]

Amazing, thanks Brad! I have a very similar rolling pin I will start using for mine! I think it might take YEARS for my grandfather's strop shell to come around, it is brutally stiff dry and ancient. Going to take lots of TLC!
I love that you can see the price at the top of it, $ 8.50 not bad pop!

 

[BuddyLuh]

I got 1 moderate oiling done on all strops now. I DID strop my practice razor I have been honing to try to get a great edge on it and I noticed pieces of leather came off on the blade once I was finished. The strop didn't feel overly saturated with oil or anything, felt dry and supple and looked in great condition. Any idea what might have done that? In my pictures it is the USA made 2 - in - 1 Strop and sharpen 322 strop.