Great post Jockeys! Somehow, the final product looks EXACTLY (I even have the same cheap-but-huge D-rings!) like my redneck strops I made from Tandy Leather supplies and brought to the last Texas Get-Together.....I smell a rat.... Nah, very cool to post for the community. I've been using one of these strops with paste and one with raw leather for a year now and they work great. I went to the same store as you did and had pretty good service, too, so maybe you just got stuck with the guy they meant to fire the day before you arrived. Oh well. I found that I prefered to use little to no oil on mine as the draw gets pretty sticky and firm with (mink) oil on it. Also, I like using the rough side of the leather, too. Works for paste or plain, too. Great job!

BTW if you're really goin' redneck, you twist yer damn pocket knife in the leather to make yer holes - like I did