Got a vintage strop

[brothers]

Up to now, I've had an Illinois strop I bought when I got my first razor, and it's been a good one to learn on.

Over the weekend, a nice old strop caught my eye and I bought it. It's got 3 pieces, one's leather of course, the second looks like a canvas strop, and the third is a white fabric that I would call linen. The canvas is a course heavy weave, and has a green color, not just in certain areas, but uniform throughout, so I'm thinking it was either coated at one time on both sides uniformly with green paste, or, probably more likely, made from fabric that was just green, sort of like a pale or faded army green.

The leather strop is thick and smooth, no nicks or imperfections. It's very old. It doesn't have a handle, it's 2 1/2 inches wide and a full 24 inches of what looks like horsehide to me. At the top it's got an emblem embossed in gold onto the leather, and it says "Best Quality" in English, and there's a round medallion that has Russian (Cyrillic?) printing in four words, and in the center there's an insignia of what I'd call a two-headed creature with wings like an eagle, and the heads look like dogs or bears, with a crown floating above the two heads, and on the creature's chest there's a shield with a picture of a man riding on what looks like a big bear. At the bottom end of the leather are the words "Oklahoma Barber College" and at the very bottom inside a diamond outline is the number "600 C".

I've cleaned it with saddle soap and treated it with neatsfoot compound. It was very dry, but not cracked or hard at all. It's pretty supple, but the leather doesn't have any draw, so I'm thinking if regularly rubbing it with my hands and stropping my razors doesn't improve the draw, maybe I should get some 220 or 320 sandpaper and give it a light going over to take the sheen off. I'm not in a hurry to do that.

I would be very interested in any observations, facts, or words of wisdom from all of you guys regarding the best way I can put the old strop to good use, and suggestions about how to best make use of the two fabric strops, such as whether any kinds of pastes might be needed or other words of advice.