I cleaned my leather strop with Dawn Dish soap.

[JesusisLord]

I added leather conditioner to my strop. Then, I added DMT Spray to my strop and my leather strop became gooey when stropping. I read somewhere on the internet that emulsions and leather conditioners don't mix well. So, I think that's what messed my strop up. Either adding too much conditioner, which I could have done messed up my strop, or DMT spray and leather conditioner don't mix well. Anyways, I needed to remove all of it from my strop. So, I used Dawn dish soap and a kitchen sponge, and it got rid of the majority of the oils and build up. I did use sandpaper afterwards to get it smoothed out, but before I used the sandpaper, I could tell the dawn dish soap did a good job cleaning.

The disadvantage to using Dawn dish soap and water, is that I had to wait 24-48 hours to dry before I could use my strop again.

Just wondering if Dawn dish soap is a good solution to clean a leather strop. I used it only once. Since, my strop was pretty much ruined. I needed to try something to get rid of all the oils on my strop before I chose to throw away my strop. The picture shows that it pretty much got rid of everything.

I read that people use saddle soap, but I don't have saddle soap. Just curious if anyone uses dawn dish soap.

Also, I know the olive oil trick works to remove compound, but in my case, I needed a degreaser to remove the conditioner.

What do you guys use to clean your strops?

 

[HumbleHomeCook]

Just use your strop. You can use them for YEARS and NEVER clean them. I've seen strops that were almost black.

I have never cleaned or treated the leather. I've scraped off old compound but that's about it.

 

[stringer]

I added leather conditioner to my strop. Then, I added DMT Spray to my strop and my leather strop became gooey when stropping. I read somewhere on the internet that emulsions and leather conditioners don't mix well. So, I think that's what messed my strop up. Either adding too much conditioner, which I could have done messed up my strop, or DMT spray and leather conditioner don't mix well. Anyways, I needed to remove all of it from my strop. So, I used Dawn dish soap and a kitchen sponge, and it got rid of the majority of the oils and build up. I did use sandpaper afterwards to get it smoothed out, but before I used the sandpaper, I could tell the dawn dish soap did a good job cleaning.

The disadvantage to using Dawn dish soap and water, is that I had to wait 24-48 hours to dry before I could use my strop again.

Just wondering if Dawn dish soap is a good solution to clean a leather strop. I used it only once. Since, my strop was pretty much ruined. I needed to try something to get rid of all the oils on my strop before I chose to throw away my strop. The picture shows that it pretty much got rid of everything.

I read that people use saddle soap, but I don't have saddle soap. Just curious if anyone uses dawn dish soap.

Also, I know the olive oil trick works to remove compound, but in my case, I needed a degreaser to remove the conditioner.

What do you guys use to clean your strops?

I buy vintage and antique strops off of the internet. I use a little saddle soap and a lot water to clean them. Sand them a little with high grit sandpaper. Burnish the edges with a pumice stone. Let them dry out hanging. And then neatsfoot oil for conditioning. That comes from cow's shins and is a thin light oil that penetrates deep and won't create a film or residue. It works pretty good as long as the leather isn't too far gone with cracks and cuts and rot.

 

[pavhav]

Sand them a little with high grit sandpaper.

You don't find this ever leaves abrasive particles in the leather strop? Or is the selected grit fine enough where rogue scratches aren't a concern?
I use scrapers on cutting boards for this reason, but haven't found a work around for strops.

 

[M1k3]

You don't find this ever leaves abrasive particles in the leather strop? Or is the selected grit fine enough where rogue scratches aren't a concern?
I use scrapers on cutting boards for this reason, but haven't found a work around for strops.

High quality sandpaper of a high grit shouldn't be an issue.

 

[stringer]

You don't find this ever leaves abrasive particles in the leather strop? Or is the selected grit fine enough where rogue scratches aren't a concern?
I use scrapers on cutting boards for this reason, but haven't found a work around for strops.

Never had an issue using good sandpaper. 1000-1500 range. Mostly I'm restoring shell horsehide. It responds well to a little polish. Old timers used to use beer bottles and screwdriver shafts and broom stick handles and all kinds of other things to burnish strops and make them more forgiving and pliable. I wouldn't use a scraper on a strop. Far too aggressive.

 

[JesusisLord]

You don't find this ever leaves abrasive particles in the leather strop? Or is the selected grit fine enough where rogue scratches aren't a concern?
I use scrapers on cutting boards for this reason, but haven't found a work around for strops.

I used 3M for the picture above and had no issue. I will say I used cheap sandpaper before with this strop and never had a problem either. The 3M sandpaper seems hold together better and allows me to reuse it.

 

[JesusisLord]

I added leather conditioner to my strop. Then, I added DMT Spray to my strop and my leather strop became gooey when stropping. I read somewhere on the internet that emulsions and leather conditioners don't mix well. So, I think that's what messed my strop up. Either adding too much conditioner, which I could have done messed up my strop, or DMT spray and leather conditioner don't mix well. Anyways, I needed to remove all of it from my strop. So, I used Dawn dish soap and a kitchen sponge, and it got rid of the majority of the oils and build up. I did use sandpaper afterwards to get it smoothed out, but before I used the sandpaper, I could tell the dawn dish soap did a good job cleaning.

The disadvantage to using Dawn dish soap and water, is that I had to wait 24-48 hours to dry before I could use my strop again.

Just wondering if Dawn dish soap is a good solution to clean a leather strop. I used it only once. Since, my strop was pretty much ruined. I needed to try something to get rid of all the oils on my strop before I chose to throw away my strop. The picture shows that it pretty much got rid of everything.

I read that people use saddle soap, but I don't have saddle soap. Just curious if anyone uses dawn dish soap.

Also, I know the olive oil trick works to remove compound, but in my case, I needed a degreaser to remove the conditioner.

What do you guys use to clean your strops?

I found out my problem wasn't the leather conditioner or the DMT Sprays fault. It was my fault. I added way too much leather conditioner. I gave the leather conditioner another try after cleaning it off again. Then, I used thin coats to both sides, and the Leather conditioner made my leather feel brand new again. Added the DMT spray after it dried overnight. Strop works like it's brand new.