Thread: Is this an acceptable strop for a newbie?

I'm thinking about offering this strop Joseph Rodgers and Sons paddle strop - Straight Razor Place Classifieds as a package deal for a newbie with one of the razors I'm selling right now (add fifteen dollars to the price or something). I was just wondering, is there anything any of you can see that would make it a poor strop for a newbie?

I was thinking they could make use of the side that looks as yet untouched, but to be honest, I know very little about strops so I wanted to ask, I don't want to unwittingly give a newbie a poor experience with shaving due to my lack of knowledge.

I'd steer away from that one. The leather isn't perfectly smooth, might or might not provide the new person an optimal stropping surface. Even worse, it is irreplaceable and likely to be sliced to ribbons in short order. Some of my first strops look like the victims of a machete attack, and I think this is a right of passage many newbies make. Possibly better to get them a Tony Miller travel strop, or an Illinois 206 (smaller side) or 361 (what I use when I don't use a TM strop-basically the same size as Tony's strops but mass produced).
HTH

John P.