Stropping with Latigo

Churchill · Post by **Churchill** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 4:02 pm

Hi gents. I picked up a great tip that I thought I would pass on to everyone.
I had noticed that my red latigo strop seemed to be grabbing at my razor as I attempted to strop. Almost like the draw had gotten entirely to heavy. I remembered reading a post about cleaning strops with industrial hand cleaner and since I had some gojo wipes in the shop I thought I would give them a whirl. Well,they worked wonders! They removed a gummy film from the top of my strop significantly smoothing out the draw. It feels like a brand new strop again. I just wiped it off using the gojo wipes and then dried with a soft towel. Don't know if anyone else has experienced this problem but I thought I would pass it on.
Cheers.

mparker762 · Post by **mparker762** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:26 pm

I regularly clean my strops with a boar brush and shaving lather, which helps keep them conditioned and drawing smoothly.

matt321 · Post by **matt321** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:30 pm

Yes, my latigo strop became gummy too. Maybe it was the Texas coast humidity. (It got very humid last summer when the Gulf of Mexico was in my living room thanks to Ike.) Latigo is impregnated with oils and waxes so it may be more prone to this problem. On the other hand, my TM horse hide strop is always nice and smooth.

wkodgzeke · Post by **wkodgzeke** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:29 pm

Interesting tip! I'll have to give that a shot and see how it works

Dave_D · Post by **Dave_D** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:56 pm

It works great. I usually finish the strop by flat sanding it (when dry) with wet and dry 200 followed by 400 wrapped around a flat sanding block, cleaning thoroughly with a dry cloth.

loueedacat1 · Post by **loueedacat1** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:16 pm

I clean regularly with saddle soap. apparently the oils and waxes accumulate unevenly, so you clean them off and it's much better.