finally pulled the trigger on a Tony Miller strop!

[Fiddlehead]

Well, I've seen probably 20 or more excited posts by SRP members spouting and crowing over Tony's remarkable handmade heirloom strops, and y'know, that kind of talk can really get to a guy. In fact, I have been scoping and lurking Tony's site for many months waiting for that elusive moment when he has strops available and I also have an extra bit of money available to spend on myself. Well, that moment came about a week and a half ago:

I had been all over the internet looking at handmade strops listed on Etsy and for sale on different shaving sites, Ebay, leatherworkers, a couple of makers in Europe, but I kept landing back The Well Shaved Gentleman. I was a little bit hesitant because Tony was offering the Fast Bridle strop, which he described as having a light to medium draw, and I was thinking that I was probably a medium to heavy draw guy, y'know, Red Latigo.... But I decided to take the leap of faith. Tony's journey with making these strops has been an evolution over the years and I decided to trust that he just simply wouldn't put anything into my hands that was anything short of superlative. That leap of faith came through yesterday via the US Postal Service.

just taking this magnificent 3" strop into my hands, I could feel the quality of it just oozing. The leathers, the weight, the hardware, the finishes. Just perfect. And to my touch, the Fast Bridle was just as described: buttery and velvety and flawless; a bit more draw than the 2" RupRazor Filly begnners strop I have been sufficing with (Still an excellent little strop, just obviously in a different league!)

So, last night, needing a shave, I brought out my current favorite razor, a 7/8ths" Ern GONG, which has consistntly yielded beatiful shaves for me, and hit it for a few strokes on the naked cotton canvas strop (Tony can no longer get the Linen strop in 3" width :-( ) then gave it 50 or 60 strokes on the the fast bridle. Felt great! I gave my face the first pass with my regular treatment of some hot water and Cremo Creme, and the difference on the shaving edge was profoundly different! A new level of shaving! I dried the razor, restropped and shaved against the grain, and everything felt great! This strop has levated my quality of life. I love it.

Thank you Tony for the work you do in making these awsme strops! worth every penny!

David