Thread: Shell Horse Hide

I just measured my Vintage Koken Shell Horse Hide strop & it is 0.154" thick which is around 4mm I think. Not up on metrics really. My other Shell horse hide vintage strop from Jager Barber Supply in Springfield IL. is 0.133" thick & the rough out treated sharpening strop with it is 0.125" thick. Both of these have turned into great strops with lot's of cleaning, small amounts of Fromm strop treatment , mink oil & lot's of hand rubbing.

Dave

Originally Posted by Slawman

I just measured my Vintage Koken Shell Horse Hide strop & it is 0.154" thick which is around 4mm I think. Not up on metrics really. My other Shell horse hide vintage strop from Jager Barber Supply in Springfield IL. is 0.133" thick & the rough out treated sharpening strop with it is 0.125" thick. Both of these have turned into great strops with lot's of cleaning, small amounts of Fromm strop treatment , mink oil & lot's of hand rubbing.

Dave

Any idea of the time frame these were made in? Say 1920s, 30s or so.

Bob

I would say that time frame more than likely. I will do some more digging to see what I can come up with. Both of these strops were flea market finds.

Originally Posted by Slawman

I would say that time frame more than likely. I will do some more digging to see what I can come up with. Both of these strops were flea market finds.

Thanks and those are better picking than you get around here.

Bob

In the first half of the 20th century, many farms were converting from horse powered equipment to mechanized. There were a great deal of older horses to supply the leather. Since the shells are from a fairly small portion of the horsehide, and many of those horses were draft, there was a lot thicker and larger shell available. Hides used by Horween now are byproducts of the horse meat industry. The only ones I have gotten from Horween have been pretty thin, 4-5oz or about 1.7mm thick. I have a vintage one that is at least 10oz. I don't think there is as much demand for this leather now, especially with the high cost to produce it.

I got thinking about the thinner Shell that is produced now & I was wondering if gluing the shell to another piece of leather would give better thickness to the strop. The other thought I had is does the thickness really matter??

Dave

Originally Posted by Slawman

I got thinking about the thinner Shell that is produced now & I was wondering if gluing the shell to another piece of leather would give better thickness to the strop. The other thought I had is does the thickness really matter??

Dave

It does matter because you won't get any cupping or stretching on a 4mm or 5mm piece of shell.

Originally Posted by Slawman

I got thinking about the thinner Shell that is produced now & I was wondering if gluing the shell to another piece of leather would give better thickness to the strop. The other thought I had is does the thickness really matter??

Dave

That's what Imperial Shave does with their shell cordovan strops.It's bonded to another piece of leather.

Have to try that. Now I need to find info on how to finish a shell strop!! Thanks for the Info.!

Slawman

My Neil Miller comes in at 2mm, and my K3 at 2.5mm. I don't know that shell cordovan has issues with cupping like some other leathers, but I'm not an expert. I like the soft supple feel that the thinness provides, and makes my stropping easier, and I believe more effective.

That said, I've got a very special strop coming soon .. A "one of a kind," for now anyway

I'm very excited about it, as this will definitely be my last strop!