How do you clean a strop?

I

Inverness11

Joined
Jul 21, 2007
Messages
23
Hey all, just started using my strop. I'm using white and red rouge per the sharpening kung fu master thread. I'm very impressed with the results. However, after a while the buffing compound gets all black and hard and doesn't work anymore. Putting more over it doesn't help either. How do I refresh my strop? I was thinking a wire brush.
 
I use mineral oil. You can get it at your local pharmacy where it will be sold as a laxative. It acts as a solvent and you should be able to wipe off the old compound.

David
 
Mineral oil, huh? I'll have to try it!:) (It's cleans ME out pretty well!:D )


I've been using copious amounts of saddle soap, and it works pretty well also. (on the strops, not on me!)

Ben
 
I can't be absolutely certain, however with the reference to autoparts stores, I'm pretty sure that they are talking about the white goopy stuff. A popular name brand is Gojo and it is not at all the alcohol hand sanitizer. It comes in big "toothpaste" tubes and tubs that resemble tubs of butter. It is a white cream with the consistency of pastey pudding and cuts grease like a staged demonstration on an infomercial

If you are interested in getting some, be sure that you don't get the variety with pumice as many kinds have. You want the plain white or orange stuff.
 
Here's a question for people that know a helluva lot more about leather than I do!:p (And you really wouldn't have to know all that much to qualify!:D )

Suppose you used an old toothbrush, and a mild hand soap, then air dried the strop, then treated it with something like lanolin or strop dressing to re-soften it.

Would that work??:confused: :confused:

Ben
 
I don't know but my strop has the shit cut out of it! Nothing you can do about that. Strange, I was going to ask this very question, but forgot to. Thanks!
 
Glycerin soap is safe to use on leather. So is shaving cream. Mild hand soap should be okay too. Saddle soap is extremely alkaline and may damage certain types of leather. I use it (no more than once a year) as a last resort if nothing else works.

Lanolin, pure mink oil (not the waxy Kiwi stuff), and Lexol are good conditioners. Neatsfoot oil is usually made from petroleum distillates nowadays. It's probably okay for leather but frequent use may damage cotton or nylon stitching.

Richard
 
Gojo Orange WITHOUT pumice or Goop w/o pumice work great. If you have a Dollar Tree store nearby, pick up Goop (guess the price).

Keep the pumice one nearby for your hands after any overly long sharpening sessions. When you wash your hands three times with the non-abrasive one and your finger nails are still black all over, the pumice/abrasive cleanser looks better and better. Abrasive-free for your strop, though.
 
I tried some of my gojo and it didn't work very well. As you can see in the picture, the waxy compound is caked on pretty good.

spa0056rf2.jpg


I tried the gojo on the smooth side and it made a mess and didn't get the compound off very well. I think I'll try taking a bronze brush to it followed by some lanolin.
 
The wax from bar compounds can be a problem with goop or go-jo. They don't dissolve the wax.

Heat the strop/hone with a hair dryer and wipe with clean rags. That will get most of the wax out as it melts.

I use alcohol hand sanitizer. Slather it one let it sit and wipe wipe wipe. Alcohol dissolves wax though slowly. After cleaning with hand sanitizer you will need to treat your strop/hone with a lanolin based hand cleaner (go-jo/goop) or straight lanolin if you can find it, to replace the oils that the alcohol removes from the leather.
 
I read on a stropping technique question that you should use alcohol hand sanitizer for CrO loaded strops.
 
I just bought a 15omm cloth polishing disk for my bench grinder. The "soap" is 309BX, youmight call it "rouge" put a mirror finish and deburred my blade in about 3 minuits.
 
Spray a lot of carburetor cleaner on it to get the gunk off. Then throw in the dishwasher and clean it with the heat/dry cycle off. Spray down with WD40 to get the moisture out. Condition with leather oil conditioner. If it is really bad piece of leather to begin with and this method ruins it than you have a good reason to tell the Mrs. that you need a new one.:eek: Please don't try this at home.
 
QuietOned said:
The wax from bar compounds can be a problem with goop or go-jo. They don't dissolve the wax. Heat the strop/hone with a hair dryer and wipe with clean rags. That will get most of the wax out as it melts.
Click to expand...
Another way to remove wax is to use an electric iron (like your Mom used to get rid of wrinkles before wash 'n wear clothes were invented) on low heat with a couple layers of paper towel between the iron and the wax.

The iron melts the wax and the paper towels absorb it.
 
I clean a strop only when necessary, as infrequently as I can manage, using saddle soap very sparingly. Clean ... wipe off ... repeat. Dont let the stuff penetrate too deeply. I then condition the leather with a tiny, tiny amount of mineral oil. Use too much, and the leather gets too soft and rubbery
 
Use Goop or Citrus Orange, they cut the paste really affectively and conditions the leather at the same time. No drying of the leather is required before reapplying the stropping compound.

NJ
 
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