I cleaned my leather strop with Dawn Dish soap.

[JesusIsLord]

3 minutes ago
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#1
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?

[Wjhunt]

I have never tried using dawn to clean a strop. I would recommend using a solvent such as mineral spirits. If you want something that dries really fast you could use naphtha. You should use some type of rubber gloves to keep the solvent off of your skin.
You might be over complicating the process of using a strop. I’m not sure if you need leather conditioner, especially for a new strop. The conditioner is made to restore leather that has been dried out from weather and sunlight. It could be that you used too much conditioner. It should only take a few drops to restore the leather.
Try making things simple. Buy a water based diamond spray. I’m not sure what the DMT diaspray uses for the liquid. Some products have an oily liquid and they are made for power equipment. The water based solution comes off real easy. I use one of those white pencil erasers to clean my strop and it has worked great for years. The spray that Mark sells works fine and it probably has more diamond in it than the DMT diaspray.

[Ourorboros]

Why were you conditioning your strop to begin with? Was it hardened or dried out?
Were you adding a lot of conditioner? What was the surface of the strop like after you conditioned? Did you let it dry out before adding the emulsion? The leather is only going to absorb so much at one time, after all. You wouldn't want to add anything to a strop that feels oily or wet. If you feel like you can blot out anything, you added far too much.
And with pastes and sprays, I like to let it dry a bit before using.

[gladius]

I have never cleaned my leather strops, only have used conditioner to "rejuvenate" them.
I use spays and pastes on balsa so when dirty or clogged I peel off a layer or replace. This has been an easy practice for many years.

[JesusIsLord]

Why were you conditioning your strop to begin with? Was it hardened or dried out?
Were you adding a lot of conditioner? What was the surface of the strop like after you conditioned? Did you let it dry out before adding the emulsion? The leather is only going to absorb so much at one time, after all. You wouldn't want to add anything to a strop that feels oily or wet. If you feel like you can blot out anything, you added far too much.
And with pastes and sprays, I like to let it dry a bit before using.

My first strop. Someone on reddit was saying they put leather conditioner on their strop after cleaning, and I tried it thinking it will help protect my leather strop from drying in the future. Instead, it made it oily. I should have left it alone. But it was my mistake. Never again will I use leather conditioner on my strop. I had left over leather conditioner in the house and thought it would be good idea, but it wasn't.

[Wjhunt]

Try this one
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/ri1midisp2oz.html
Spray it on and let it dry for 30 minutes or so.

[JesusIsLord]

Try this one
https://www.chefknivestogo.com/ri1midisp2oz.html
Spray it on and let it dry for 30 minutes or so.

The DMT Dia Spray works well. After I cleaned my strop and reapplied it.

[Ourorboros]

It's okay to use leather conditioner under the right conditions. It functionally replaces the oils lost, but is not a preventative treatment.

[gladius]

It's okay to use leather conditioner under the right conditions.

---
Yes, in fact is recommended.

Use the yellow paste I recommended << in the earlier post (that was deleted). This to keep your bare leather strops supple.

[Ourorboros]

Use the yellow paste I recommended << in the earlier post (that was deleted). This to keep your bare leather strops supple.

It's funny how the Madison, WI area has the most usefully complete selection of stones and strops. Sure, it doesn't have every (good) stone under the sun, but the ones not there are generally scarce to begin with.

[JesusIsLord]

3 minutes ago
Add bookmark
#1
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.

[mike59]

Best way I've found to clean compound from a leather strop is just scraping it off with a putty knife. Not like scraping from one end to the other but vigorous short strokes back and forth with the putty knife perpendicular (or very close to it) to the leather. Start easy and work your way up to what works and you'll know where to start next time. You don't have to get every single bit but amazing how much you can just scrape off. It's really the steel filings you want to get off anyway so if that's accomplished and there's still some stropping compound left it doesn't hurt anything.. Then just apply some more compound. Hope that helps! - Mike

[billk1002]

Best way I've found to clean compound from a leather strop is just scraping it off with a putty knife. Not like scraping from one end to the other but vigorous short strokes back and forth with the putty knife perpendicular (or very close to it) to the leather. Start easy and work your way up to what works and you'll know where to start next time. You don't have to get every single bit but amazing how much you can just scrape off. It's really the steel filings you want to get off anyway so if that's accomplished and there's still some stropping compound left it doesn't hurt anything.. Then just apply some more compound. Hope that helps! - Mike

I did the exact same thing, scraped it until it was mostly clean and then reapply what ever compound suits you.