Thread: Finish Strop and Sharpen Strop?

Recently I bought an old strop at an antique store made by Illinois Razor Strop Co. of Chicago. This strop has two leather strips on it: one a smooth brown strop which states "Finish on this strop" and the other a rougher black strop which instructs "sharpen on this strop" what do each of these mean? And do I use them differently than a normal honing strop? Any assistance would be appreciated.

One is probably pasted and the other is plain leather. How much paste is left on it and what type is unknown. Unless you have a good scope, you wouldn't be able to see the scratch pattern of pastes. So I have no idea how to determine what was used on that one.