Thread: Its my birthday and Ill start an arguement if I want to

All right I dont really want an arguement but Itll probably end up with passionate discussion. So the question. Which leather is best for the sharpest most refined edge and who makes it. Is it cow,buffalo, roo, latigo, cordivan, horse, unicorn what. Thanks for your help once I nail down a leather I can blow my birthday money on my current ad. Cheers Ed

Kangaroo - it has the finest grain and those little fibres just get right in there and do the job!

Happy birthday, by the way.

James.

Cheers. Looking to indulge all the ads but want a nice strop and razor.

I dunno myself, since I've only ever been able to strop on horse shell and black latigo (which is my favorite of the two), but everyone who has used a kangaroo strop seems to love em, so I'd trust Jimbo's input on this. I'd actually love to try some out one day, since I've heard they have a lot of draw as well, which I love more draw on a strop, and since I've heard such great things about 'roo.

There are really good strops in many of the materials you listed.
It all comes down to how well it is made.

I have favorites among the various materials, but that is just personal preference and snobbery.
Most any well-made strop will do just fine.

Of all the strops I do have, my Cordovan shells gets used the most...

I should make this a sticky but to tell you my experiences-har har.

Years ago when I started using a straight I decided I would collect one each of strops made from every possible source. I had them all. Just about every critter that ran, swam or crawled. Everything from porpoise to moose to camel to horse to cow to elk to Ostrich and on and on. I had a lot of strops.

They all did the same thing. They all felt different and some seemed very luxurious to use and some not but in they end it didn't matter as far as the razor was concerned. I never detected any difference in the shave.

Actually there was one strop I never did get and I understand was made in very limited quantities-stingray. It has very different characteristics.

I'm glad that phase passed. I gave them all away but I really miss that black sealskin strop.

I haven't had a lot of strops. I have a SRD Premium One, That is nice and getting better as it breaks in. But I have a Hess Hairmilk Labs, Clydesdale Shell, with a Fine linen with no markings on it. The linen is so much smoother then the heavy linen on the SRD strop. I found it in an antique store for $40.00, but it looked like a child had scribbled all over it with a sharp object. However, they weren't very deep scratches and since the tanning runs all the way through the hide with the 6 month tanning process it goes through, I was able to sand them out, and polish it with 3M polishing paper up to 12,000 grit. The strop is like glass. I can run the palm of my hand over as fast as I can, and I get no heat from friction. It is a dream to use. Between the fine linen, and the shell strop, it makes my razors give the smoothest shaves. I'm now looking for a new Shell strop, from a talented craftsman to see if there is any comparison between a new one and an old one. I sure hope I have the money when Neil miller has one up for sale.