Quote Originally Posted by gssixgun View Post
Please always keep in the back of your mind that although we often read old "Manuals" and "Literature" and refer to them as almost a shaving gospel...
These should also be preferenced with IMHO just as we do now when we write our opinions on here..

These Books and Pamphlets were the Forums of yesteryear, not saying they are right or wrong, but they are after all one man's opinion...
Oh, absolutely. I couldn't agree more. However, I'd still like to see the results of an experiment, and I may have to buy an old Swaty to satisfy my curiosity.

On a fun note to help illustrate your point, here is an excerpt from an old barbering booklet (1895) on razors, hones, and strops.

Russian leather and horse-hide are the Barber's old favorite strops. However, there are many new kinds of good leather strops, as follows: Kangaroo, porpoise, moose hide and wild boar hide are very highly recommended, and are sold by all Supply Dealers. To break in leather strops try the following course: If not already done, grind the grain side to smooth it down, soak in urine a couple of days, let dry a day, stretch on a board, fill with shaving soap, rub with bottle in the same manner as canvas, apply lead and rub until ready to use.

Christopher