2.5" Genuine Shell Cordovan and Linen Hanging Razor Strop

This is a good quality, solid and reliable strop, hand-made in England from top quality materials.  The leather is genuine shell cordovan - not the usual horsehide, but the top quality leather from the two small 'shells,' roughly circular discs taken from the rump of a horse.  This leather is very expensive, rare and a luxury item - for example, the best hand-made shoes are made from it and you can get perhaps only one pair of shoes per shell!  It is a very strong, very pliable, extremely non-porous leather and is not made up from strands, like normal leather, which makes it naturally wrinkle-resistant.  The tanning leaves a soft, pliable but extremely strong leather with s soft, waxy sheen.  The process of tanning (which takes an incredibly long time - about six months!), hand-staining and finishing is done by skilled people - not machines.  Most of the old top-quality strops were made from shell cordovan.  This leather gets better with age, acquiring a rich polish and patina.  It is not necessary to use any dressing - hand-rubbing every now and then will suffice.  The leather is approx. 2mm thick.

The other stropping material is genuine linen - made from natural fibres that have not been bleached and refined - a 100% natural product produced in England.  Genuine linen is more abrasive than cotton, and therefor needs no dressing, unlike cotton which often needs an abrasive dressing to improve its effectivenes.  The genuine linen is very tough, but looks lightweight when compared to the extra-heavy duty cotton I use in my other 3 inch wide strops.  The genuine linen is about 1.5mm thick on average, and because it is made from the natural, less-refined product it often has thin wispy fibres protruding from it - these will not affect its performance in any way, however, and the wispy strands may be trimmed or singed (although this is not necassry at all as they will fall away over time by the process of stropping the razor).

The leather handles and hardware attachment flap holding the strops together is made from real crocodile skin - it is the genuine article and not an imitation.  This type of leather is incredibly expensive - even more expensive than the shell cordovan.  It has tougher scale-like areas and softer patterned areas which give the stuffed handles (a more expensive option than a simple sewn strap) a strangely organic and very distinctive look.

The strop is a good length - from the tip of the hanging gear to the bottom of the handle it measures approx. 28 inches long with about 15.5 inches of stropping area.  This is a fair length for a genuine shell cordovan strop - many are smaller.  The heavy duty bevel-cut nickel hanger is fitted with an equally heavy-duty swivelling scissor-action hook allowing either side of the strop to be used without de-mounting.

The makers logo and the 'genuine shell cordovan' mark are embossed into the leather and may be stropped-over without harm to the razor.

Please note that this is an English handmade product, made by one individual - not a factory item made by machine, so you should expect signs of handwork such as slightly irregular stitching, etc.  Due to the hand-tanning and hand-colouring there may be slight irregularites in colour and small marks.  Leather is a natural substance which also shows some marks and slight imperfections, none of which will interefere with the ability of this strop to produce a super-fine edge on a razor.  I always make a test prototype of every strop I sell, selecting the leather that has representations of all marks and imperfections for the test prototype, and I use it punishingly so I am very familiar with the materials I use and can personally recommend them.  The items I sell are made from leather that has far less pronounced markings, etc, than the test prototypes - anything not meeting my exacting standards is rejected!

This is a heavy strop - the packaged weight will be around 875gms.