Types/trends of strops in the past
Anyone know what types of strops were developed when and for whose use? For instance, is the hanging strop primarily something grown from barber's use? Did men typically have them in there homes or did they use various forms of paddle/loom strops? I assume the answer is going to vary by time period. Just curious if anyone has any info on typical trends. I suppose one could build a case for what was common with a perusal of old catalogues, advertisements, and such...for as far back as you could find them anyway. Also, the past arts and literature probably have clues as well as shown in the occasional posts on shaving in literature (I'm crazy enough to wish I had the time and resources to actually research this kind of thing!! Oh, well...back to the day job.)
- Dale
Necessity is the mother of invention...
I look at it this way,
man figured out that by rubbing metal against something harder (stone) he was able to wear away metal and form an edge. The harder the stone (and the finer) the sharper the edge. Then he discovered that wiping it on something soft & smooth (but durable) made the edge smoother. Hence he probably discovered wiping it on animal pelts.
The evolution of the strop probably came from that. I'm sure they figured out that you had to lay the pelt on a table or something flat to use it well. The paddle probably evolved from there, so you wouldn't need a table to lay the pelt on - it was stretched over a board. But where do you store it? I'm sure some tucked it into a drawer, or left it on a shelf... but being that it was rather long, it would probably be easier to just hang it by a nail from the wall and take it down when needed. Then they probably figured out that you could leave it attached to the wall, and just stretch it tight to use, and hence the hanging strop style was born.
I'm sure that for those people who were shaving in the same location every day (barber shop, or home user) the hanging strop was a good compromise between space saving design & minimized cost. The paddle strop was probably better for those people who traveled and/or probably who could afford something that cost more, since there are more materials involved.