Originally Posted by
Neil Miller
Feel free to forget this old info, it is only good for vintage strops, say around 105 to 75 years ago.
Today the standard from Horween and Shinki-Hikaku are all around 1.9 thick, sometimes a wee fraction thicker, sometimes a fraction thinner.
I measure each strop I have ever made. The Horween shell cordovan being painfully regular at 1.8 to 1.9mm in thickness, and that is strops by the hundred, if not the thousand...
Neil Miller
PS a salient reminder:shell cordovan is the fibrous bit contined under the skin of a horses butt, this is what makes it expensive.
Ordinary cordovan is normal hide, taken from any other piece of the horse except that gets the cordovan treatment.
In terms of expense xhell cordovan is most expensive,
cordovan cost a good deal less,
horsehide costs very little.