Thread: HandAmerican "old dog" strops

I recently received a HandAmerican strop with the red latigo and brown HandAmerican leather. Mine needed a few applications of fromm strop conditioner and some massaging to relax the leather, but it's performing incredibly well. Using the HandAmerican side the razors strop up in only 30 laps compared to the 40-50 I needed with the Illinois and Bismark strops.

The padded handle is a very nice touch, and the D-ring handle solves the biggest complaint I had about my old strops, which is that I had to be careful how I held the handle or the strop would twist. With the leather grip on the D-ring handle, if I hold it off-center then the handle slides around and the strop still pulls straight.

I also got a version of their strop with both sides in split leather. This one I pasted with Flexcut Gold (bar form) and HandAmerican Boron Carbide paste-in-a-tube, I'm using this one with my knives and it will deliver shaving-sharp edges on a pocketknife, I haven't used it on a razor but I wouldn't be surprised if it worked for that purpose as well. It took my puma stockman from "arm-scraping razor sharp" to "hair popping sharp" in only a few minutes.

Both of them are highly recommended!

I posted a review of the Old Dog strops a while back. I concur with your assessment wholeheartedly. They're outstanding, and a phenomenal bargain. I got the red latigo/red diamond and the black latigo/natural ones. 2.5" wide, with a 20" working surface. Could not be happier with them.

Mine's 24" of leather with a 22" working area, and probably the same width as yours. I think their standard strop is 15" of leather which is probably too short, the extra length is awfully nice.

Wow! I had not been to Keith's site for a while, but he usually has excellent products and bargain prices.

I have an Old Dog Strop from HA, and really like it as well; a decent "bang for the buck." It's the current standard size/width (found out that was just fine after measuring what I was using on my most used strop at the time) in Red Latigo & Red Diamond.

I agree that the leather seems stiff when brand new -- I nearly slid the razor off onto the hardware at the end because it was so slick! It's wearing in fine though. The large D-ring handle with padding is really nice.

In subsequent correspondence, Keith mentioned that there will be a standard larger option soon (3X24in.) too. I'm looking forward to getting one of those.