I've got my grandfather's strop, and I'm perplexed...

While cleaning out the last of Dad's stuff for closing on the sale of the house, I ran across this strop in his closet.

The pics speak for themselves. The perplexing part is the back of the strop. Note the texture and gray color. Is this some type of abrasive to help restore and hone the edge? If that's what it is, how can I tell which grit it is??? :hmmm:


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...psc907b4f2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...ps89b0c5da.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...ps9ef99d85.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...psc4c44912.jpg

Nice find, have you tried to "GTS" for information on the manufacturer, it may produce some results.

Based on what is written on the back of your strop I am inclined to believe that it was treated with something. The fact that the strop looks like it was sold this way I would feel say saying it was probably treated with a commercially available product. The only way I can see finding out exactly was put on the strop would be to look for ads for this strop. You can also look up what strop treatments were sold commercially at the time your grandfather would of bought it.

As to determining grit that gets tricky. You can compare it to other know paste to see where it falls. It would be a bit time consuming but you could get a really good idea that way.

I know back in the day they would rub strops with lead pipes or lead rubbers to "treat" the strop. I guess it would act as some kind of abrasive kind of like we use CrOx. Of course they used lead for everything from paint to pacifiers back thin so that my guess.