Thank you David. Another dumb strop question.... Smooth side or rough side of the leather? I use the rough side with great results WITHOUT compound. I have white and brown compound.
Also, if the compound is turning "black"- does that tell me it's working?
Stitchawl's input is good, regarding the 'black' stuff accumulating on the strops; it's no big deal, and does show the strop compound is working. I occasionally just wipe my strops with a dry paper towel, which removes a good bit of the loose steel swarf, and keeps the strop from 'glazing' for a long while, as stitchawl mentioned.
For me, I'll usually start out using the smooth side. BUT, the character of the rough side will vary all over the place, and sometimes I've used the back side of leather because it really does seem to work well, depending on the individual piece of leather. I have a leather belt, purchased from Cabela's, that has almost become my favorite strop, due to the character of the inside (rough) face of the leather. Works great as a 'hanging strop', with the belt looped around a bed rail, towel rod or whatever's handy. I applied a little bit of green compound to a 12" section of it as well (how many can say they actually wear their compounded strop?
). I've also 'roughed up' the smooth side of veg-tanned leather to give it some velvety 'nap', which really holds compound well. I use some medium-grit sandpaper to do this, and vacuum up the debris/dust from the surface afterwards.
I (strongly) don't recommend sanding a strop that's been specially prepared (cased) for razors, like horsehide, Russian, Illinois razor strops, for example; sanding those will ruin them. The 'plain' old veg-tanned leather, bought at craft stores or saddle shops, won't be diminished by it. I have occasionally sanded down a really dirty strop (after wiping with a WD-40-moistened paper towel), before re-applying compound. Again, I use a vacuum to pick up as much of the surface debris (including possible particles from the sandpaper), before re-applying the compound.