Thread: no linen on my strop?

I purchased (without looking around enough,I know) a strop off e-bay. It arrived today, with the dreaded "Made in Pakistan" stamp.

It has 2 strips, one of a thicker tan leather, and one a much thinner strip of black leather. I think.

It has no linen. Is this normal?

I don't think it's unusual - All of my strops except one have two leather sides.

James.

I might be wrong, but I think "Linen & Leather" is the standard..........

Marko.

I have a couple of strops that are only a leather strop. I just strop my razor a few extra times on the one side. I tend to stay away from the flesh side of the strop though some members use that side as well if it's really smooth. This may be normal for most vintage style strops. My mom recalls watching her father strop his razor and recalls only seeing one leather strop.
I've bought a couple of ebay strops that had a leather and a "synthethic material" strop. Suprisingly the synthetic material stropped better than the leather. I ended up trashing them as I got hold of better strops.
Ernest

Yeah, that's my current plan. I am trying to avoid spending a lot of money on this, until I can figure out if it's gonna be for me.... Keeps me from getting flack from the wife.

Until then, the strop (a Selective Professionl Tools thing) came with a free crappy Paki straight, so I'll be practicing on that. Hehehehe...

Originally Posted by Criticalpedestrian

I purchased (without looking around enough,I know) a strop off e-bay. It arrived today, with the dreaded "Made in Pakistan" stamp.

It has 2 strips, one of a thicker tan leather, and one a much thinner strip of black leather. I think.

It has no linen. Is this normal?

I hate to tell you this the leather on your strop is probably very low grade and the much thinner black strop isn't leather at all. It's usually a synthetic upholstery cloth leather imitator.

I agree with the previous posts that it is very common for strops to be leather only. I made strops and most of mine are just leather. I do some with a canvas strop. Less then half of the vintage strops I have are with linen/canvas strops.