Thread: strange old strop instuctions

Hi all,

I was at the local fair last night and stopped in at the tool museum building. Then I spied a couple old razor strops hanging on the wall. I noticed that they had some interesting instructions stamped into the leather. So I whipped out my cell phone camera and snapped a couple pics since I thought you guys would be interested. The stamping states "strop lightly on black side finish heavy on this side". That seemed completely backwards to me. I'm thinking the light and heavy must be referring to pressure. Generally, we finish light on stops, hones, etc. NOT heavy!?? Maybe, this was a pasted strop and the black side was coarse?
Anyway, I found it very curious. The leather has a strange texture as you can see in the pictures -- pig skin maybe?