[marosell]

I found myself an antique strop, but its very cruddy and kinda gross. I tried scrubbing it with a brush and letting it soak with some water and lather and rescrubbing it. But all I seem to be doing is washing down dark red-brown colored water down the drain.

It's grainy to the touch. It says "The Southern Barber Supply Co - Roanoke, Va" on the bottom of it. What can I do with it??

[nun2sharp]

Let it air dry slowly, very slowly, so the leather will not shrink, dry out become britle and crack. Once dry use a moist rag and some saddle soap, follow the directions on the soap. Once it dries again, use some neatsfoot oil to bring the leather back to life. Good luck with the resto project.

[marosell]

Thanks for the suggestions nun2sharp. I asked Firebox to take a look at it, and he suggested I take some sandpaper to it. I did some 120 and then some 400 and it really cleaned it up and smoothed it out. I skipped out on the saddlesoap and went straight to the neats foot, and it turned out great.

[ProfessorChaos!]

I have only restored one strop, but it worked out pretty well. I too lightly sanded it to remove the crud and then washed it repeatedly with saddle soap until clean. After it had air-dried, I applied neet's foot oil to it until it was supply.