Interesting to read the patents filed for strops in the past...
http://www.google.com/patents?q=razor+strop
While the inventions may be suspect, the abstracts describe the problems they were trying to solve, which provide clues as to the expectations men had of their strops when stropping was common place. For instance, patent #1479030 states "Very few users of razors are able to keep the edge on their razors, due largely to improper stropping. The strop is often held so tightly that the strop scarcely touches the real edge at all, while on the other hand is the strop is loosely held the strop rounds off the edge and ruins the blade until honed." That patent was for an invention sure to fix both problems. Then there are the curious ones like the one that has a magnifier built into the end of the strop (there's an idea for you Tony! :hmmm: ).
Interesting.
- Dale
