Thread: Would you believe it? A $20 Horween strop!

THIS seller continues to list "Horween" strops on UK eBay.

What do you think? Is this Horween leather?

They are sure ugly. I doubt I would buy one even if they do turn out to be Horween leather.

He also has an 'english leather' for £2 less
Genuine English Hand Made Cow Hide Strop All Natural Hide with Free Paste Oil | eBay
and the surface looks a lot better on his pictures than the 'horween leather'.
I'm pretty sure Horween tans and sells a lot of leather in all kinds of grades and the seller doesn't appear to be cutting the right ones for strops.
But it takes two to tango - if some people are willing to buy those things and he is happy to be selling them I suppose it works from a market perspective. Doesn't mean anything in terms of whether it works, just like there is no end of the Zee-pk type of junk that is sold as 'razors' and 'strops'.
Some people buy junk just because it's cheap and some people sell junk just because it's profitable.

Just because it is claimed to be made from the " finest Horween leather" may not mean that it is made from Horween's shell Cordovan leather. As Gugi says Horween supplies many varieties of fine leathers. Although the seller is not directly saying it is Horween shell Cordovan buyers may jumps to that conclusion by the wording.

Not being a leather expert, if I was looking specifically for a shell Cordovan strop I'd take a pass just on the basis of too cheap to be true. Yes, they appear to roughly made to boot.

Bob

If it is too good to be true......

To use a meat analogy, those appear to be the 'hot dogs' of strops, in which case they should properly be called Horweenie strops.

Horween does other than shell. If someone is buying a horween strop, you want it to be horween shell. That's definitely not shell, horween's shell obviously has a very specific look due to their treatment.

If someone made a strop out of horween bovine leather that was intended as utility leather for footballs or something, it wouldn't be anything special (and maybe not even usable).

Well, I think those strops would be the perfect match for the high quality Gold Monkey Straight Razor. That and some ivory soap and a basic VDH brush and you will give straight shaving new meaning.

Like getting ugly ties at Christmas

I don't think that is the work of the Horween Company. I have three of their watch straps and they are sublime. Those straps look like the work of a retarded monkey.