Any idea how to get this strop smooth again?

LimpCroissant

LimpCroissant

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Hey guys. My parents just sent me my old strop that was stored in my box of knives that I keep over there. It must have been kind of pressed up against a knife or too and they left these little dimples in the smooth side of the leather. Its been out of the box for a few days while it was being shipped to me and hasn't taken it's original shape back. Does anyone have any tips on how to maybe swell the leather back up and then like roll it with a baker's roller or something? Possibly get it wet with water and let it sit or maybe WD-40? If you guys have any techniques I'd really appreciate it, thanks!

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kreisler said:
WD-40 is oily. Doht use any oily liquids. They get soaked into the leather and then basically never go out again.
Maybe you could simply place some heavy flat stones on the strop and compress the leather uniformly?
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Hmmm ya that's not a bad idea. I'll see if I have something that will hold shape to go on top of the strop and then some thing heavy to go on top, that might work.
 
There's a woodworker's trick to do this with wood. I don't know if it'd work with leather, but it might be something to consider:

Lay a damp washcloth over the dents and let it sit for a few moments. The moisture will wick into the wood. Then apply heat with an iron, on a high setting, in small back/forth or circular motions. This process will swell the indents to 'flush', after which they'll stay put after it dries.

With a leather strop, this may or may not work, depending on how well the strop absorbs the water. If the compound applied is very waxy or oily, that might diminish the leather's ability to wick the moisture. But it might be worth a try.
 
I clean mine with that cheap, white, mechanics hand cleaner. It must have lanolin in it. That and water as hot as it'll come out of the faucet. Let it dry on the floor vent over night. Then heat the leather and the compound with a hot hair dryer. It helps the compound to flow better.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
There's a woodworker's trick to do this with wood. I don't know if it'd work with leather, but it might be something to consider:

Lay a damp washcloth over the dents and let it sit for a few moments. The moisture will wick into the wood. Then apply heat with an iron, on a high setting, in small back/forth or circular motions. This process will swell the indents to 'flush', after which they'll stay put after it dries.

With a leather strop, this may or may not work, depending on how well the strop absorbs the water. If the compound applied is very waxy or oily, that might diminish the leather's ability to wick the moisture. But it might be worth a try.
Click to expand...
Nice trick, I like that! Yea I was kind of thinking of utilizing water to swell it back up too, that's a good trick with the iron. I might try that tomorrow after I sleep on it. I appreciate it!
 
Uncle Timbo said:
I clean mine with that cheap, white, mechanics hand cleaner. It must have lanolin in it. That and water as hot as it'll come out of the faucet. Let it dry on the floor vent over night. Then heat the leather and the compound with a hot hair dryer. It helps the compound to flow better.
Click to expand...
Ooo ok sweet! I just checked and I have some hand cleaner with Lanolina. Maybe the Spanish version of Lanolin? Haha. Probably the same stuff huh. I appreciate it!
 
pwest said:
I know it ins't an answer to your question, but I don't think those little, smooth, dimples will cause any degradation in your strops performance.
-Phil
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Ya don't think so? No, that's definitely good feedback. I was looking at it really closely to see if the edges of the dimples were slightly raised and they don't look like they are so I was kind of thinking the same thing. However I'm super ocd about my stropping haha. Thanks for the feedback!
 
pwest said:
I know it ins't an answer to your question, but I don't think those little, smooth, dimples will cause any degradation in your strops performance.
-Phil
Click to expand...
Agreed.

A couple of my strops actually have small sections of leather missing from accidental cuts, and they don’t have any negative effect.

I also regularly use natural stones with inclusions/gaps in the material and as long as the edge can glide over the inclusions it’s fine (although I wouldn’t sharpen a razor on one of these…)

The other thing to consider (and the thing I’ll do soon to my thrashed strops) is to simply peel off the leather and replace it with fresh stuff. I like using mounting tape instead of glue to make this process easier. Might not be feasible to remove the leather from yours however, and I don’t think it needs it…
 
scdub said:
Agreed.

A couple of my strops actually have small sections of leather missing from accidental cuts, and they don’t have any negative effect.

I also regularly use natural stones with inclusions/gaps in the material and as long as the edge can glide over the inclusions it’s fine (although I wouldn’t sharpen a razor on one of these…)

The other thing to consider (and the thing I’ll do soon to my thrashed strops) is to simply peel off the leather and replace it with fresh stuff. I like using mounting tape instead of glue to make this process easier. Might not be feasible to remove the leather from yours however, and I don’t think it needs it…
Click to expand...
Ok, thank you for your input brother. Yea, maybe I'm overthinking it a little. I will try the couple techniques mentioned in this thread though, probably today, to see if I can get them out. This is a strop that I made almost 10 years ago. I cut and carved the wood and used an olde belt for the leather haha. It's served me super well. Maybe one of these days I'll replace the leather. What kind of mounting tape do you use, like VHB tape or something? I bought some 3m Super 77 spray adhesive for a few projects and made a denim strop the other week and it worked really well.
 
Honestly I think normal double-sided tape would probably work, but I usually use 1” 3M brand “mounting tape”. Comes in clear and black.
 
LimpCroissant said:
Ok, thank you for your input brother. Yea, maybe I'm overthinking it a little. I will try the couple techniques mentioned in this thread though, probably today, to see if I can get them out. This is a strop that I made almost 10 years ago. I cut and carved the wood and used an olde belt for the leather haha. It's served me super well. Maybe one of these days I'll replace the leather. What kind of mounting tape do you use, like VHB tape or something? I bought some 3m Super 77 spray adhesive for a few projects and made a denim strop the other week and it worked really well.
Click to expand...
When I made my own leather strop blocks years ago, I used carpet tape. It's a mesh backing with a very strong adhesive. It was very convenient for my use, because I could buy it in the same width as the board stock I used for the block (2-1/2", if I recall). It's a very strong bond, but still just peelable enough that the leather can be pulled off and the tape removed/replaced if you want to refurbish the strop at some later time.
 
scdub said:
Agreed.

A couple of my strops actually have small sections of leather missing from accidental cuts, and they don’t have any negative effect.

I also regularly use natural stones with inclusions/gaps in the material and as long as the edge can glide over the inclusions it’s fine (although I wouldn’t sharpen a razor on one of these…)

The other thing to consider (and the thing I’ll do soon to my thrashed strops) is to simply peel off the leather and replace it with fresh stuff. I like using mounting tape instead of glue to make this process easier. Might not be feasible to remove the leather from yours however, and I don’t think it needs it…
Click to expand...
Ok, thank you for your input brother. Yea, maybe I'm overthinking it a little. I will try the couple techniques mentioned in this thread though, probably today, to see if I can get them out. This is a strop that I made almost 10 years ago. I cut and carved the wood and used an olde belt for the leather haha. It's served me super well. Maybe one of these days I'll replace the leather. What kind of mounting tape do you use, like VHB tape or something? I bought some 3m Super 77 spray adhesive for a few projects and made a denim strop the other week and it worked really well.
scdub said:
Honestly I think normal double-sided tape would probably work, but I usually use 1” 3M brand “mounting tape”. Comes in clear and black.
Click to expand...
Alright sweet man I'll keep that in mind.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
When I made my own leather strop blocks years ago, I used carpet tape. It's a mesh backing with a very strong adhesive. It was very convenient for my use, because I could buy it in the same width as the board stock I used for the block (2-1/2", if I recall). It's a very strong bond, but still just peelable enough that the leather can be pulled off and the tape removed/replaced if you want to refurbish the strop at some later time.
Click to expand...
Ooo nice, I like that idea a lot! Like you said, it's nice having just one big piece of tape instead of multiple smaller pieces. Makes a nice even backing too. I'll remember that one.
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
There's a woodworker's trick to do this with wood. I don't know if it'd work with leather, but it might be something to consider:

Lay a damp washcloth over the dents and let it sit for a few moments. The moisture will wick into the wood. Then apply heat with an iron, on a high setting, in small back/forth or circular motions. This process will swell the indents to 'flush', after which they'll stay put after it dries.

With a leather strop, this may or may not work, depending on how well the strop absorbs the water. If the compound applied is very waxy or oily, that might diminish the leather's ability to wick the moisture. But it might be worth a try.
Click to expand...

I was going to suggest this, but you beat me to it. I have used this on wooden gun stocks, works great to remove little dings and nicks on those. Have never tried it on leather, but it's worth a shot.
 
eKretz said:
I was going to suggest this, but you beat me to it. I have used this on wooden gun stocks, works great to remove little dings and nicks on those. Have never tried it on leather, but it's worth a shot.
Click to expand...
Another vote for that technique, alright sweet thank you guys. I'm going to go ahead and give this a try. And on the compound I use, it's not like the green compound or anything that I've used on it, just diamond paste.
 
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