What the heck kind of strop IS this anyway?

I purchased a strop on ebay for about $30 (yeah I know, if I looked here first I would have found a better strop recommended on SRP for a cheaper price:gaah:). It's a Illinois Razor Strop Company #127. I noticed right off that it had some poorly cut edges on the handle and other minor imperfections. I contacted the seller and he refunded me some of the purchase price which I thought was fair because it seemed to still be functional. And I couldn't tell at the time I purchased it but it had a cow's head logo instead of a horse head like other IRSC strops, other than that it looks exactly the same. Anybody know what this might be all about? It had the linen "Barber's Best" strop, hardware and everything to look exactly like a IRSC strop except for the emblem.

I am using it to learn on and, of course, nicked it up pretty bad. I then, following SRP member advice, used a pumice stone to try to smooth out the nicks and that worked pretty good. All in all it's holding up pretty well. Just that stupid cow head that makes me wonder...

IRSC is a good company and I have noticed that they have switched to the cows head also. they haven't used horsehide in a very long time and may have started using the cows head logo so as not to confuse their customers

ISC are reputable strop makers. If you stop nicking it it will serve you for the rest of your straight shaving carreer. Not bad for a 30 USD minus partial refund strop.

I haven't had any complaints about the strop itself. Like I said the only defects seem to be some workmanship mis-cuts on the handles (one part of the handle is cut so that the stitch line goes off the line of the handle). All in all it works fine, I just looked at all the pictures on the net at various vendor sites and saw all the IRSC strops have the horse head on them. I wondered why mine did not.

Thanks again for clearing this up for me.

BTW, I am getting somewhat better at stropping and haven't nicked my strop in a long time...well not real bad anyway:o