2.5" Horse Hide & Linen Double Hanging Strop

This is a very good quality, no-nonsense solid and reliable strop, hand-made in England from quality horse hide.  This is the same sort of horse hide that vintage strops were made from - it is very slick with hardly any draw and quite stiff.  The draw can be altered with strop dressings such as neatsfoot oil and dovo yellow paste (elsewhere in this shop) and any tendency to cup can be cured by a thorough breaking in routine that was the norm for vintage horsehide strops.  Breaking-in consists of lathering the strop well on both sides (the old shaving soaps had high fat, oil and glycerine content) and working the lather into the leather with a smooth round object, such as a bottle.  The strop is then left overnight to dry (it may be weighted if it has a large tendency to cup).  To stop the strop drying too quickly and becoming stiff again, a little neatsfoot oil is applied to a balled-up scrap of cloth and rubbed evenly all over the surface of the strop.  An alternative - and easier - routine is to use a saddle soap rich in glycerine.  Saddle-soap contains neatsfoot oil, too.  A well wrung-out sponge is used to apply the saddle soap evenly to both sides of the strop, and before the strop fully dries out it is rubbed again with a soft cloth to remove any residue.  This will leave a burnished surface, which may be brought down once more by applying neatsfoot oil or another strop conditioner - the draw will also increase if this routine is followed - but this step is optional. 

This type of strop is not ideal for a beginner - it is more for someone who is familiar with strops and who knows how to get the best out of this wonderful leather.  Like all natural products the leather panels have small marks and unique traces, none of which will impair the ability to finely hone a razor - it has been specially hand-selected for this job! 

Genuine linen is a less-processed fibre than cotton, and unbleached so it retains its natural mix of colours.  It is a bit more abrasive than cotton, and will give approximately the same degree of abrasiveness as cotton pasted with white dressing (which contains chalk dust).  The material is  finely woven, and because of its less processed character has fine, wispy fibres emanating from it - these do not affect stropping in any way and are merely cosmetic.  The material is quite thin - about 2mm thick - but very strong and well suited to stropping on.

The leather handles are securely sewn to the strop.  The edges of the leather strop panel are lightly bevelled so that they are less likely to catch the razor, and there is a pinstripe embossed into the leather on either side as a simple, but elegant decoration.  The leather is about 3.0mm - 3.5mm thick.  There is a swivel attachment and hook provided on this model.  The handles are made from real goat leather with an embossed crocodile pattern and are comfortably contoured and padded to firmly fit the hand - they are not cheap flat stitched handles that you find on most modern strops!  The hardware is very heavy-duty too!

The overall lenth of the strop from the tip of the hanging gear to the bottom of the handle is 26.5 inches and the stroppable area is 13.5 x 2.5 inches.

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.  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!