Strop Restoration, can it be done?

[Dave Colangelo]

As a result of traffic I took the long way home last night which resulted in a stop a junk/antique shop I found. I found 2 strops and for the grand total of $18 I could not turn them down. Regardless of quality they make very nice additions to my collection



The black one is leather and has 2 parts. One is a smooth finishing side labeled "finish" and the other is also a leather side but has kind of square punctures in it. They are equally spaced in a grid pattern and seem to be more for rough stropping. The leather is stiff but in good shape, what if anything can I use to soften it and clean it up a bit?

The light brown strop is a horsehide strop and is quite soft. As you can see there is tape holding the bottom 2 inches on as it seems to have broken off. I plan to just make a clean cut above the tape line and forget the bottom part. I first thought that it was missing a bottom handle but then I realised it never had one which is what lead to it breaking. The bottom is creased from being held and caused it to break apart. This stop is in better shape but could use a bit of a cleaning, again what can I use to clean it?

Worst case they go on display with everything else I have...

Regards
Dave

 

[Mike H]

There is an excellent tutorial in the wiki
http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/How_to_Restore_a_Strop

 

[Dave Colangelo]

I found that after posting this thread and it has some good information. I will be going on a hunt for high grit sand paper and leather polish etc. after work.

Regards
Dave

 

[Dave Colangelo]

So after taking the advise here I got to work yesterday and got everything all clean. Some sanding may be in order but the cleaning did wonders.

Here they are before cleaning. Notice the taped on part was cut off the brown one with ease and it looks great now.



I dont have a pic of the black one clean yet but here is the brown one, it came out great. The hardware cleaned up nice but would look great re-chromed. They were both very stiff and the black one remains stiff and may not be useable but the brown one is nice and soft now. Used it to strop a few knives and it worked quite well.


Regards
Dave

 

[California Cajun]

Wow, what a difference on the brown one!

 

[Dave Colangelo]

The saddle soap did a great job of not only cleaning but helping to smooth it out a bit. You can really see the dirt come off in the cloth while working. The leather conditioner you see in the picture did a good job of softening it up, as for protection we shall see in the long run. Mink oil will be the next thing I experiment with on the black one to see if it will soften it up.

Regards
Dave

 

[redrako]

Amazing.

For $18 plus some sweat equity, you'll end up with at least one nice strop and if you're lucky perhaps two.

 

[Sando]

Nice work. Saddle soap and mink oil go along way to getting the job done. I've never used Lexol but it looks like it did you right. You might not even need the mink oil. I used 600 grit sandpaper a couple times to increase draw on mostly used up strops.