Thread: how often?

just wondering, how often should i dress my strop?

Unless it becomes noticeably dry and brittle, the answer is never. In general you can maintain your strop by occasionally rubbing the strop with your open palm. The oils from your hand will transfer to the strop and keep the leather in good shape.

What he said. I live in a very wet climate and have only dressed one of my strops once.

Agree with the others. The only strops I've needed to dress are vintage ones, even with them some have been good to go after a clean.

I don't want you to think that you are at all indulging my prurient interests here, but how often do you undress your strop?



It's a slow day...

Depends on where you live, what type of leather and where your strop is hung. In a hot, dry climate like the Nevada desert I live in, a strop may need to be dressed more often than if you live in a more humid environment. If you have small bathroom and the shower humidity permeates the room, you will probably never have to dress a regular leather strop.

But, if the surface of the leather gets noticeably dry to the touch and rubbing it with your hand does not bring it back to supple, consider a light dressing.

If you have a latigo strop, rubbing it is a good idea every so often as it brings the oils up to the surface.

Some folks like to change their clothes a few times a day. You know for work then after work and if you go out later. Then there's the weekends if you're doing work around the house then you go out later. Of course there are formal occasions too. So you could be dressing your strop very often and....oh that's not what you mean?