Thanks for more sage advice. Maker's mark? It says 'Eurobeauty' on the front of the handle on the black leather strap. The Ebay shop its from sells a wide variety of other hairdressing products, scissors etc, so I'm sure there must be many of them around. Recall I paid about a tenner for it.

Actually, I 've just looked at the shop again ( eBay UK Shop - eurobeauty400: HAIRDRESSING SCISSORS, 5.5 Scissors, THINNING SCISSORS) and it sells scissors, tweezers......and Speculums!!!! Would you really want to see that hanging on the wall at your local hairdressers, or worse still, barbers?

I think I like the idea of giving it a work over with a wine bottle (I assume you mean like a rolling pin effect?) I guess the main performance criterion for a strop is that it is flat, soft and compliant (and relatively blemish-free). I am fairly sure that, after all the reading, my technique is fairly sound (smooth, not too much pressure, roll the blade over on it spine, etc) but the slight rasping noise I get when stropping is what is making me uneasy. It is hung up on a coat hook behind the bathroom door, so when held relatively taut I am stropping up and down with fairly consistent pressure.

PS pardon my newbie ignorance, but I really don't get the idea of the second, coarser strip hanging behind it. I have seen some where this is fabric/webbing, but on this one it too is leather, albeit coarser. Any comment?

PPS Posting on here sure beats working