Thread: SZCO Strop?

I would forget the szco, a pakastani strop that's very hard and rough. try tony miller at the well shaved gentleman and see if he has any plain vanilla strops left. if you want to shave with a straight don't cut corners on a strop get a good one later you can pop on a nicer one. a strop under 40.00 is usually you get what you pay for if you pay for junk you get junk.

Oh I forgot to mention also that many people are happy with the whipped dog poor man's strop kit. It's inexpensive and at least it comes with a lot of praise. But that Fromm looks like it has good reviews too...

Whipped Dog Straight Razor Shaving Equipment

It's important to distinguish between a cheap strop and a quality inexpensive strop. It's true you may damage your first gear or maybe you won't. However if you buy all cheap gear your experience with straight shaving will be clouded by the quality of what you get and if the performance is minimal it could cause you to decide straights are not for you.

Kind of like a first time car owner buying a Yugo and deciding he doesn't like to drive period.

Originally Posted by Tarkus

Not going on a rant, or maybe I am.
50 dollars, 65 dollars for a new guy to buy a first time strop. I.M.O. is ill advised. Why does it always end up where it always comes down to spending more bloody dough on kit? It doesn't have to be that way.
Is it good to buy top quality gear? Yes sure, but as a first time out purchaser, who probably never put steel to leather in his life before sounds like pissing money down the drain.
Lets say get that inexpensive strop try this new hobby of yours and see if everything clicks. Then in a about 6 to 12 months if your still hooked on straights then think about up grades.
Money is too hard to come by these days.

Take a deep breath and calm down darl
i completely agree with you 100% with regards to not wasting money.
However does anyone actually know anything about this strop? There is no point buying something inexpensive if it isn't going to do the job. Personally i cant say either way as I don't know anything about it.
At least if a new shaver purchases a decent modular strop and falls out of love with shaving they would have a hope of recouping at least some of the money spent based on the fact that another person could buy it and if necessary replace a damaged panel. And down the track if they decided to stick with it could basically have a new strop for the cost of a replacement panel.

My first strop looked like Fido's chew toy after a few months, it was a Herold and I think I could still use it, just less of it, if I didn't upgrade to a better strop. The initial investment was small.....I recall reading that Neil Miller laughed at how many people he has talked out of buying one of his strops.
IMHO:
Stick with a known quantity (mentioned in above posts).
Forget reselling your first strop, at best you could give it away( to someone with a dog who likes chew toys) because you will make mistakes (if you buy a hanging strop).
Buying the best strop you can afford does not apply here.
Opt for a 2.5 strop, it is where all the cool people end up.
Good Luck, there are a lot of conflicting opinions on this site and this can be daunting to wade through.....

Fromm's an "ok" brand

Yes my frend here got the same Szco strop , it is high quality strop and they made it for several companies as rebranded product . It is madefrom fine sueded leather *( rusian leather it is called i think ) . the only problem is that is long and narow , for me it is valuable strop but for the prise you can get something wider from SRP design .
The strop and King 1000 - 6000 stone is a deal and a wonderful combination for the prise , on my opinion .
I began with a narow strop and the X stroping gives shavng edje more quickly than the widerstrop for me but you canot go fast on a narow strop during x stroping .
For sure it is a hight quality strop , very common in EU .

From reading here the Fromm strops are made by Illinois Razor Co and are considered good strops. Both cheap and decent quality. Good luck