I need a SIMPLE inexpensive way to clean my strop....

[BenLong1018]

I saw a thread on strop cleaning already, but it was just too much. I need a simple yet efficient way to remove all of the metal that's built up on my strop. Thank you.

 

[socalkid]

Hello,

I have a piece of thick leather mounted with the non smooth side up on an oak board for my strop so Im not sure if this will work for you. I also don't use normal strop compound, I use white metal polishing compound. What I do when my strop has too much build up is take some Gorilla duct tape and lay it over the leather. I press it down with a round wood dowel then pull it off. It usually take 3 tries to remove all of the old compound. After that I lightly sand the leather with 220 grit sandpaper. It brings my stop back to new condition and its fast. I would never do this with a nice strop but it works great on my home made strop.

Have a good one,

Chris

 

[GODSPEED TACTICAL]

socalkid did ya good... 220 on an orbital sander or even by hand will recondition/clean it up just fine.


Eli

 

[Magnaminous_G]

If you have a Strop Block, it's incredibly easy to maintain due to the way it is made. Compound is melted into olive oil and hot worked into leather. When it dries, there is a thick layer of compound on the strop which partially penetrates into the leather. When the strop gets loaded and glazed with metal, you dip a finger in olive oil and just rub fresh compound to the surface.

Amazingly, it actually works. A few drops of oil and 1 minute of rubbing with your finger, and you get a nice, clean, swarf-free surface of fresh compound. Then you are ready to strop again. I've had mine for a year, and going strong. The folks at Knives Plus tell me they've been using the same Strop Block for years. I highly recommend it if you want a strop that is easy to maintain.

 

[R1-Dave]

Gavkoo has a video on how he cleans his strops. He just pours alcohol on the strop and runs the spine of a blade down it to remove the crud. Give it a rinse with more alcohol and let dry.

 

[marcinek]

Scrape the crud off with the spine of your knife, or just put more compound on over the old cruddy compound.

Good as new. It ain't rocket science.

 

[peppen108]

If you have a Strop Block, it's incredibly easy to maintain due to the way it is made. Compound is melted into olive oil and hot worked into leather. When it dries, there is a thick layer of compound on the strop which partially penetrates into the leather. When the strop gets loaded and glazed with metal, you dip a finger in olive oil and just rub fresh compound to the surface.

Amazingly, it actually works. A few drops of oil and 1 minute of rubbing with your finger, and you get a nice, clean, swarf-free surface of fresh compound. Then you are ready to strop again. I've had mine for a year, and going strong. The folks at Knives Plus tell me they've been using the same Strop Block for years. I highly recommend it if you want a strop that is easy to maintain.

+1 If you want to switch compound you can use a rag whit olive oil. The compound build up comes of amazingly fast.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Moisten a paper towel with WD-40, and just wipe the black stuff from the surface of the strop. That'll do a lot by itself. Re-apply compound as needed. On a day-by-day basis, just wiping the surface of it with a dry paper towel makes a big difference.

 

[Jason B.]

WD40 for light cleaning.

Lighter fluid for heavy cleaning.

Sandpaper for re-surfacing and as a last resort to save a damaged strop.

 

[zero244]

Alcohol on a course paper towel will remove a lot.
If your strop is getting too smooth you can run a wire brush cross grain to raise the grain.
Just don't get too crazy with the wire brush.
You can heat the leather with a hair dryer and reapply the polish.

 

[HoosierQ]

Moisten a paper towel with WD-40, and just wipe the black stuff from the surface of the strop. That'll do a lot by itself. Re-apply compound as needed. On a day-by-day basis, just wiping the surface of it with a dry paper towel makes a big difference.

This is all I do...works great. Depending on how hard you go at it, you may or may not even need to reload the stop with compound.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

This is all I do...works great. Depending on how hard you go at it, you may or may not even need to reload the stop with compound.

Agreed. It's sort of impressive, the compound that does the 'real work' is the stuff that's firmly embedded in the strop. I'm finding that the 'embedded' compound really seems to hang on, tenaciously. I don't worry much about wiping the compound away anymore, when I use a paper towel and/or WD-40 to clean it. Whatever compound does wipe off, it wasn't likely holding on anyway, and performance doesn't suffer for it. In fact, I've noticed my strops work better after they've been used and 'cleaned' a couple or three times, without applying any new compound.