I think I ruined my leather strop?!

S

stevenchamp45

Joined
Mar 4, 2016
Messages
7
Ok, so i've just started stropping and overtime it seemed the compound was building ip in only one area. To fix this, I looked online, and some people were saying to clean it with rubbing alcohol, so I did that. The strop was more dry and didn't seem to sharpen very well, and the honing was still in one area. After looking up more ways, people said you can clean off your strop using WD-40 and sandpaper. I tryed this on both sides of my strop (My strop has one end with rough side of leather and one end with smooth side) with 100 grit sandpaper and The smooth sidelooked carser and uneven, while the rough side looked freyed like a carpet almost. not only that, but the WD-40 made it all oily and I don't know how to get it out. Gladly, the strop was just a cheap one for about $15 on amazon, but i'm kinda bummed because i'm trying to apply my herb's yellowstone to it and it's too slick to strop my blade. Can anyone help please?
 
Hi,
*ouch*
you could alwasy try loading the compound on some cardboard or newspaper or printerpaper, put that on a table or wrap around a stick or benchstone, and strop on that
 
Get some glycerine or saddle soap (same stuff, just different "branding") and give it a gentle clean. 100 grit is way heavy for smooth leather. A little neetsfoot oil will restore the leather a bit. As far as the actual surfacing though, you may just have to either let it wear in again, or smooth it gently with a pumice stone.

a word of warning though. any abrasive you use will get embedded into the leather, so if you are hoping to get perfect edges and polish, that won't happen any more, since you will have grains of abrasive that will leave big scratches. They might not surface for a while, but its nearly impossible to clean them out. Better idea is to bin the leather, get a new one, and start from scratch.

Best way to clean leather is with anything you would use on yourself. pure soap, or glycerin soap, and to moisturize it, either neetsfoot oil or a similar leather conditioner. some people seem to think wd-40 is the answer to everything, but its just not that good for most of them. functional, but not good.
 
As said previously, glycerine or saddle soap. But I wouldn't be gently about it. Work up a good thick lather on a sponge and wash the strops well. Try not to saturate the leather, but don't worry if you do. You won't hurt it by getting it wet, just so long as you let it dry naturally. Spend 15-20 minutes rubbing and washing, then rinse well. Let the strop dry out naturally, but out of direct sunlight.

Then take a piece of 600 grit sandpaper and smooth out both sides of the strop. Doesn't have to be perfect. Now... wash the strop again, using even more soap and more water, to rinse off most abrasives. You can't get it perfect, but you can get it good enough for any pocket or fixed blade 'user' knife. Now let it dry again. When dry, work in just a wee bit of leather conditioner. Personally, I wouldn't use neatsfoot oil. (That's just my personal opinion.) I'd use a neutral shoe cream that you can buy in almost any shoe store or Dollar Shop. 'Cream... not shoe polish or wax.... shoe CREAM.
Three or four pea-sized globs per side will do the trick. Rub them in well using the heel of your hand. Let the strop sit for a day or two, then rub it again. Now use a dry cloth and rub off all excess cream. Your strop is ready to use.

The reason people like to use WD-40 is that it contains 'Stoddard's Solvent.' That's the stuff that thins the mineral oil in WD-40 and then evaporates leaving just the oil. As it's a 'solvent,' it works very well on wax-based compounds, and together with the oil, removes them. Unfortunately, it leaves the mineral oil behind, as you've discovered.
 
Good thoughts there Stitch, I don't have as much experience deep cleaning leather, but if you say get aggressive, then I'll take your word for it. I'll also keep that in mind next time I need to. as for the neetsfoot oil, not everyone's cup of tea either, good idea on the alternative, also probably easier for a lot of folks to find.
 
gadgetgeek said:
Good thoughts there Stitch, I don't have as much experience deep cleaning leather, but if you say get aggressive, then I'll take your word for it. I'll also keep that in mind next time I need to. as for the neetsfoot oil, not everyone's cup of tea either, good idea on the alternative, also probably easier for a lot of folks to find.
Click to expand...

Leather is remarkably tough stuff. I mean, it does a really good job holding a cow together, right? Think about the incredible abuse that a working western saddle takes... Out all day in the pouring rain, blazing sun, pounded on by some pretty heavy butts from dawn to dusk, and yet last for years and years without wearing out.... Wash it down every once in a while... give it a rub with some neatsfoot oil (I'll come back to this in a moment.) and the hardest used saddlery can last for years. Obviously there is 'leather' and there is 'leather.' The better stuff lasts longer than the garbage. Different tanning processes, different animals, different usages.... etc., etc.

You can be really rough on most veg-tanned cowhide, though. Pretty much, the only thing you can do to 'ruin' it is get it super-sopping-saturated wet, and then dry it quickly with heat, like a hair drier. And even then, you can usually bring it back to life (I'd use 'Armor-All' to do that... It's amazing stuff!) If you dry it slowly, and then give it a rub with leather conditioner, it's just about as good as new!

But to get back to neatsfoot oil... That's really a VERY good leather 'replenisher.' But it's easy to over-use it in some applications. For saddlery, I'd put it on fairly heavily with a sponge, let it sit for 10 minutes and rub it off. It will do a great job of reviving old leather, softening it, and water-protecting it. (NOT waterproofing it!) But for something like a strop, where I might be trying to put compound on it, the oils 'may' make the compound difficult to adhere. It will definitely make the leather softer, which is NOT what I want for strop leather or shoes/boots. Shoe cream, although it does have some oily bits in it, limits that very well, yet still replenishes the natural oils in the leather without softening it noticeably.


Stitchawl
 
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