Question to all. You know how your supposed to rub your hand on your strop to put a little oil on it before you strop your str8. Does this oil act like the teflon/other coating used on DE blades so that they cut better? I know the amount of oil is very small but maybe this amount of oil helps the blade slip past the skin better than a dry strop.
Oil on a strop is like a coated DE blade
- Thread starter O.G.
- Start date
I think the oil is more to help keep the leather conditioned than to do anything with the edge.
That would explain recommendations I've seen to use a tiny bit of neatsfoot oil on a strop if you aren't blessed with enough of your own oils.
i does help the strop for sure, why not the blade slide a little better too.
No, it doesn't. First off it's running through lather which is soap and will promptly strip it away, but even if you were shaving lather-less it wouldn't help since your skin and whiskers are oleophilic and will promptly wick it off the blade
I use an oil to condition a strop and add draw to it if I wish.
I haven't been able to find neatsfoot oil around - I wouldn't even know where to pick it up (I'm assuming leather store but I'm not even sure where one of those are). I've gone to a sporting goods store and picked up baseball glove conditioner and used that which works very well. Make sure you read the package before you buy it - there are some wacky ones that have instructions about applying the oil and then baking the leather in an oven. The one I picked up said it just contained neatsfoot oil and cost about 5 bucks.
The amount of oil used may depend on the strop - I put oil on a horsehide strop and it sucked it down like nobody's business to where I had to use more than I ever expected. My latigo though didn't need hardly any. I decided to use the oil as for some reason I can never remember to rub my strops daily with my hands.
I haven't been able to find neatsfoot oil around - I wouldn't even know where to pick it up (I'm assuming leather store but I'm not even sure where one of those are). I've gone to a sporting goods store and picked up baseball glove conditioner and used that which works very well. Make sure you read the package before you buy it - there are some wacky ones that have instructions about applying the oil and then baking the leather in an oven. The one I picked up said it just contained neatsfoot oil and cost about 5 bucks.
The amount of oil used may depend on the strop - I put oil on a horsehide strop and it sucked it down like nobody's business to where I had to use more than I ever expected. My latigo though didn't need hardly any. I decided to use the oil as for some reason I can never remember to rub my strops daily with my hands.
I picked up some neats foot oil from a online horse place. they use it for their saddles, boots etc
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