Leather Strop Maintenance
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- This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 01/04/2020 at 7:30 am by Brewbear.
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09/26/2015 at 3:32 am #29033
Is there any? My 3.5um side of my 5/3.5 strop is kind of sticky as in it doesn’t glide smoothly over the bevel. I’m wondering what the problem is. They have gotten pretty dark with use and don’t have a bunch of nicks or cuts in them but is there any conditioning that they require? Like oiling with olive oil?
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09/26/2015 at 5:09 am #29034I haven’t tried a leather strop yet. People such as Ken Schwartz, and ytreich of knifeforums have stated that lexol leather conditioner works best on any kind of leather and doesn’t harm the strop. ytreich appears to me from his other posts to be very creative, methodical and careful in his work making and sharpening knives, and I will try lexol when I get strops.
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09/28/2015 at 7:11 pm #29062I confess to be one of the laziest members of this forum when it comes to WE product maintenance. In reality, I also don’t maintain my gear because I want it see where it can fail. When it comes to strops, I don’t do anything except occasionally add more paste and lightly mist them with rubbing alcohol before use. They get black and kind of ugly looking but they work great.
-Clay
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10/02/2015 at 2:50 pm #29105How about cleaning with alcohol, recondition with olive oil, and then reapply paste Clay, would that work?
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10/02/2015 at 7:06 pm #29107How about cleaning with alcohol, recondition with olive oil, and then reapply paste Clay, would that work?
That would definitely work.
-Clay
10/06/2015 at 9:24 pm #29132THERE IS A STROP BLOCK THAT I BOUGHT PRE-LOADED WITH GREEN COMPOUND AND THE MANUFACTURER SAID WHEN IT GETS HARD AND BLACK TO TREAT IT WITH A FEW DROPS OF OLIVE OIL AND GENTLY RUB IT IN TO BRING IT BACK TO LIFE , IT WORKED GREAT HAVE HAD IT FOR SOME TIME NOW .
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12/28/2019 at 9:24 am #52830I confess to be one of the laziest members of this forum when it comes to WE product maintenance. In reality, I also don’t maintain my gear because I want it see where it can fail. When it comes to strops, I don’t do anything except occasionally add more paste and lightly mist them with rubbing alcohol before use. They get black and kind of ugly looking but they work great.
I’m the same way Clay. I follow the instructions for the strops that wicked edge supplies to the letter, misting before my initial application as well as misting with alcohol before every use. I have had my wicked edge for coming up on 9 months, and I sharpen maybe three knives a week, average. I have not felt the need to reapply strop paste yet, and I do mirrors very frequently. I am just now considering that I *might* need to add some more.
12/30/2019 at 6:41 am #5283812/30/2019 at 1:15 pm #52842Hi All – Quick admin note, to try and avoid any confusion. While I think this is a great thread, I (the “Developer” profile) didn’t originally create it. As it was from 2015, and we’ve updated our forum a couple of times, migrating old posts as we go, many of the old posts got reassigned to my profile as the original user no longer had an account.
So, please keep up the great discussion, just know that I’m not actually the author of the 2015 topic.
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12/30/2019 at 10:13 pm #5284412/31/2019 at 12:49 pm #52846To the best of my knowledge, the strop compounds, sprays and emulsion are aqueous bases, (i.e. water based distribution vehicles).
I agree that oils like neatsfoot oil have been used to treat leather for years and years, to maintain suppleness. I don’t know that’s necessarily the best mix with the aqueous stropping compounds/vehicles.
I have found using isopropyl rubbing alcohol misted on the leather seems to dry out my leather strops and leave the leather hard and stiff.
I don’t know the answer. It would seem to me a water-based leather cleaner/conditioner might be the way to go. Maybe a “Lexol” product.
I just scrubbed my well used leather strops with dish soap on a dish sponge with a 3M scotch pad on it. The blackened leather came clean. Better then I’d expected. I applied Meguiar’s auto leather cleaner/conditioner. I like how they feel. I’ll see if they feel any differently after reapplying the strop compound and using them.
Marc
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12/31/2019 at 9:30 pm #52851MarcH said: I agree that oils like “Neatsfoot Oil” have been used to treat leather for years and years, to maintain suppleness. I don’t know that’s necessarily the best mix with Aqueous stropping compounds/vehicles.
you are right marcH I do not put abrasives on my leather strop’s.
I do not know the answer either.
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01/04/2020 at 7:30 am #52900Very good topic, keep it going gents and thank you! Happy 2020 to all.
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