Gentlemen,

The past few years, I have drifted away from strops with handles or D rings opting for plain ends. I don't exactly know why except I find find them more comfortable in my hands as well as versatile.

Also, traditionally strops came with plain ends and I like tradition. Not only that, but I prefer shorter strops since I only use about 7 to 8 inches of stropping length, and strops with handles or D rings make the strop too long for me.

Unfortunately, most strops come with some type of handle. My Kanayama/Kanoyama and Torolf strops are without handles and that's why, aside from their overall quality, I am so fond of them. For the other strops — Neil Miller, Tony Miller, Bison and Mountain Mike — I now grip just at the line the handle and the stropping surface meet, ignoring the handle or the D rings altogether. Eventually, I plan to remove the handles on these strops, too, to make myself the best of all worlds.

Gentlemen, what do you prefer, handles, D rings or plain ends?