Leather bench strop cleaning

[Honest John]

This definitely not a sharpening thread ! But today I was having a sharpening session and I noticed my strop is very shiney and I think loaded with metal and compound. It still seems to be working but the tools seem very slick on the shines surface. Does anyone clean their strops? And if so how do you do it? Several vids on YouTube but they seem to fall into three main camps, with each one arguing their case and suggesting that you don't do it any way but theirs. I'm not even totally sure that I need to do it.

 

[thetyreman]

This definitely not a sharpening thread ! But today I was having a sharpening session and I noticed my strop is very shiney and I think loaded with metal and compound. It still seems to be working but the tools seem very slick on the shines surface. Does anyone clean their strops? And if so how do you do it? Several vids on YouTube but they seem to fall into three main camps, with each one arguing their case and suggesting that you don't do it any way but theirs. I'm not even totally sure that I need to do it.

every so often I use a very narrow chisel and with the chisel on its side drag off the excess green aluminium oxide, it seems to work, then I'm back to the bare strop with no compound on it.

 

[ED65]

Depending on what you load your strop with you may be able to wipe it clean with a wad of kitchen paper wet with white spirit. If not you can gently scrape it back, with a card scraper, the edge of a kitchen knife or a wide putty knife.

 

[Peter Sefton]

I use baby oil on my ever couple of months, it cleans and opens up the pores of the leather to except compound.

Cheers Peter

 

[Honest John]

Thanks guys. I'm going to have a scape (again) and il try some baby oil as well. I like the smell anyway !

 

[xy mosian]

I recently cleaned an old razor strop, french design double sided, by rubbing with a mix of Vinegar and Olive Oil. The process went suprisingly well.
xy