Thread: Jemico Red Russian VS Antique Horsehide

Hi all, when I started this adventure, I purchased a dovo razor and a jemico red russian strop beliving these would be good to hone my skills with. Since then I have acquired several razors, a swaty, nortons, etc.. AD is in full swing.........

after purchasing razors off a number of forum members they all provided me with great shaves, but after a couple of shaves, i could never quite get them back to the edge they came with

recently I made a purchase that including several items, one of which was a horsehide strop, very old, but with an awesome canvas material, so I took a genco that I bought from Don, hit the canvas side about 25 times, then hit the horsehide side about 50 and guess what? it shaved like the day I received it! I also had a much smoother motion during my stropping

so heres my question, is the jemico a poor quality strop or is the horsehide just far better??

or is my technique so poor that i cant get the full benefit of the red russian?

or has the lighter draw of the horsehide improved my technique?

I performed the same procedure on a few of the other razors, and their sharpness also returned, so can someone explain this or should i just start another cold war with the russians?

We've discussed this before but the general consensus is that in the end the critter the leather is from has no bearing on the stropping. I've had many and find no difference. My first strop was a jemco red and it worked fine though I think vintage strops are just better quality then new ones save Tony's and a couple others on the market now. In general Horse has little or no draw. But that doesn't affect the result.

Hi,
I've got a Jemico & I've been very happy with it. It's Russian, but not red. Quality is good & it does the job well. Some things just work better for some people. This is especially so in the early days. I'm finding that i become more adaptable as i make progress. Got a beautiful vintage strop too though, with sterling silver hardware that is also fantastic.