Brief review: Tony's Paragon horsehide & linen strop

Yesterday, I received what I imagine was one of Tony's first new Paragon horsehide and linen strops. I'm sure all the readers of this know that this is a beautifully made strop with top quality hardware, so I'll comment only on the horsehide and how the new design works.

I really like the horsehide. The draw feels similar to my (unconditioned) TM honey brown strop (and much lighter than latigo), but it seems a little more idiot-proof. What I mean by that is, for some reason, the edge more consistently maintains contact with the leather, even with very light pressure. Time will tell, but I'm optimistic that I'll get more consistently good edges from this than with the honey brown.

I also really like the way the new design works. I stropped first on the linen by holding the linen side's handle and letting the leather side hang loose. Then I rotated it the other way around and stropped on the leather, letting the linen side hang loose. It's quick, convenient, and you know you've got the right tension on the side on which you're stropping. Very nice design!

Great work, Tony!

Steve,
Thanks! I find they work well if held with both components together too if you like a stiffer feel. This way one component backs up the other for stiffness. With one hanging loose you get a lighter, more flexable feel.

Yours varies slightly from the final design as I had not gotten the new handle leather at that point. All of the new ones will have black latigo handles where yours has horsehide there too. The horse is tougher to fold and glue for handles as it needs to be wet to fold and dry to glue. The latigo bends easily around the hardware.

Glad you like it.

Tony

A work of art.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Yours varies slightly from the final design as I had not gotten the new handle leather at that point. All of the new ones will have black latigo handles where yours has horsehide there too.

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Cool, I have a unique strop! :D

Soon enough i'll have a horsehide, honeybrown, red latigo and black latigo to compare. They are all custom with aspects pulled from the new paragon strop and aspects pulled from the old strops.