I don't doubt for a second they're junk. What I'm trying to ask (and apparently not doing a good job of getting it across. My apologies.) is what makes them bad? Are they uneven, is the leather poor quality, etc? What makes for good leather? As I said above, people have posted about going into Tandy's scrap bin and coming out with a good strop. What makes scrap piece of leather A desirable over scrap piece B? I'm not DIYing my first strop, and definitely going to get it from a reputable source. I'm just looking for a little education.