A Gift From My Wife.

I love her, and her frugal ways. ESPECIALLY when it comes to grocery shopping!

So I mentioned being interested in SR shaving all of two or three times, and she got the ball rolling from there. Probably has something to do with my impending birthday.

And then she was smacked with the same sticker shock I first was. Though, she didn't logic her way past that towards "well how much will be spent on cartridges over time?"

She first came back from a grocery trip with a puck of Van Der Hagen soap with a clearance tag on it. +5 wifey points since I hadn't even said I was gonna actually use a straight razor.

About 2 weeks later, she let me in on the kit she was assembling on the 'bay, "since your so fricken picky!"

1: Stainless steel bowl and badger brush w/stand (my family raised hogs, no bore bristle for my face).

2: A no-name 2 sided strop. "Leather on one, suede on the other."

Both were fairly inexpensive. $14 & $11, respectively.

Only received the strop so far. I was hopefully optimistic. And, well... I guess... just check out the pics.





My heart sank when the only words on the clear plastic sleeve that was the packaging was a sticker that read Pakistan. And I'm not sure if you can make it out in the pic, but the loop to hang it on something is literally a nail bent into a circle. Can y'all see the bumps in the leather? I also see metal flecks on it.

How much use is it? Should I even bother using it in my amateur restoration attempt of a slightly rusted ERN & a chipped Tufpug?
If it turns out to be just "ugly, but usable", that's perfect. I had already planned on a good 3" when I get my Dovo from SRD... for after I taught myself proper technique on the sacrificial cheap-o.

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Sincerely,
Crawler.