Stropping compounds

Seems everyone has a trick or preference when it comes to loading their strops. I've heard everything from heat lamps and tossing the strop in the oven for a while to open up the pores to WD-40, Windex, mineral oil, hand cleaner, and anything else you can imagine.
Some prep the strop and then apply compound, others prep the compound in a sort of slurry and then apply it. Personally, all I've ever done is let the leather get a little warm and crayon the stuff on. I've had good results with this method, your mileage may vary though.


Gautier
 
Roger999 said:
How do you guys make it apply more smoothly?
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Take some of the compound you use on the buff ,find a old tin add compound and a little olive oil and melt it together on the stove then just smear it on your strop ,cover the tin and it stays soft for ages .
Richard
 
I find the oil/compound slurry mixture interesting and intriguing, but so far I've always done it the way Gautier does..... with good results. I heat my strop (glued to a piece of 5/8" wood, about 3" x 11") under a 100 watt shop light, then rub the compound in.
 
StretchNM said:
I find the oil/compound slurry mixture interesting and intriguing, but so far I've always done it the way Gautier does..... with good results. I heat my strop (glued to a piece of 5/8" wood, about 3" x 11") under a 100 watt shop light, then rub the compound in.
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I've tried putting it under a lamp but it only makes a small area easier to apply.
 
Roger999 said:
I've tried putting it under a lamp but it only makes a small area easier to apply.
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I suppose it does make a difference how long your strop is. As I said, mine is 11", so I can heat it one-half at a time......BUT! I don;t apply the compound until the entire strop is warm.

I warm half, then slide the strop over to get the other half, then back to the first, then second half, etc., until it's warm entirely. THis takes 15 or twenty minutes. I'm using a 100 watt incandescent bulb about 2" or so above the strop.

Now, some might advocate a quicker way to warm the strop (oven, 'wave, etc). I can't argue with that but I would advise caution - here's why: I once left mine for too long under the lamp. My leather is glued down to the base with contact cement. You could use yellow aliphatic resin or epoxy, both would be fine, but for mine I used contact cement. Anyway....... it sat too long, the cement loosened its grip, and the leather started to come up. Now, I don;t think it was because it got too hot, rather it was too hot for too long. So....caution when using alternate heating.

ON EDIT: It sounds kind of silly because NOBODY would try to warm a strop with JUST the bulb, but I forgot to mention, mine is work-lamp with the metal shade spreading the heat and also keep it down where I need it.
 
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Use a hair dryer. It's quick, easy, and readily controlled. It can even heat solid compounds directly.
 
StretchNM said:
I find the oil/compound slurry mixture interesting and intriguing, but so far I've always done it the way Gautier does..... with good results. I heat my strop (glued to a piece of 5/8" wood, about 3" x 11") under a 100 watt shop light, then rub the compound in.
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Yeah, I recently tried mineral oil, and it works great. Just rub some compound on the strop, drip some oil onto the compound and mix it around with a finger. It dissolves the compound, and then you can spread the mixture on the strop and let it dry, leaving a nice even layer of compound to play on. But next I want to try it on paper on glass (to reduce convexing)!!
 
WD-40 makes it spread like butta! Haven't seen any signs of damage to my strop for 10 years.
 
hmmm, I might have to try that wd40 trick. I have been just crayoning the stuff on. Every so often I have to take a paper towel and rub the excess off (only on the high polish compound).
 
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