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Thread: Anyone know any good European strop companies?

  1. #41
    Senior Member UKRob's Avatar
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    Neil also made the point that Cordovan gets its name from the tanning process used in Cordoba - so it's quite possible in my mind that the difference between the Japanese shell strop and the Cordovan shell strop is down to the way it is tanned. I believe the Horween process is the same as Cordovan - but stand to be corrected by someone with more knowledge.

    When Neil's site was open there was always a warning on his shell strops that said they were completely different to the Kanayama strop - although he didn't specify in what way. It's obvious from their appearance that there is a big difference.
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  2. #42
    Senior Member blabbermouth markbignosekelly's Avatar
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    I have two modern shell cordovan strops,(Neil Miller, Westholme) both are thin and no where near the thickness of my Kanayama. I believe the Kanayama is Cordovan tanned and not shell but from the hide above the shell. Cordovan is just a tanning process and can be used on any leather.
    Neil Miller once mentioned that all the shell cordovan he had in the last few years was always around the 2mm mark, (vintage shell is thicker as they were from working horses, Nick Horween states that the majority of the horse hides he uses is from Canada and France where horses are still rasied for the food industry) on aframestokyo website Takeshi mentions that Mr Naomi (Kanayama maker) has to have at least 12mm horse hide to make his strops, this is what leads me to believe my theory, I might be completely wrong however.
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  3. #43
    The Hurdy Gurdy Man thebigspendur's Avatar
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    I have both the Kanayama 90K and the #3 and they are the same product just the 90K is larger and thicker and comes with the suede component. I think the #3 is really a 30K he just switched around the designations depending on the retailer.

    The confusion with Cordovan as a term is it refers to two separate things. There are items, usually shoes that are sold as "cordovan" which is just a color kind of a black-brown which can be any kind of leather, usually cow and there is horse shell which is referred to as "cordovan" which is a type of leather based on it's location on the animal.

    The Horween Shell Cordovan looks the same no matter the product. Shoes, strops, watch bands etc. It's clearly the same stuff.

    So the question is, can it be processed to appear to be different and radically different. Answer that question and you will know if the Kanayama is horse shell or not.
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    Compulsive frankensteinisator Thaeris's Avatar
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    During a meeting with M. Naomi (maker of the kanayama strops), a french member asked him what kind of leather he used, and M. Naomi told him he was only using leather from (at least) 8 y.o. horses.

    The fiber part of the back of horses known as shell cordovan, and basic horse leather for the suede strop.







    The process used to make his cordovan strop is the following one :



    1 - raw material
    2 - after oil bathing
    3 - after tanning
    4 - after machine polish
    5 - after rough sandpaper polishing
    6 - after fine sandpaper polishing
    7 - after milk coating
    8 - after coloration
    9 - after shining
    10 - after metal oxide polishing

    However I don't know how are made Horween strops.

    Nevertheless, I'm plenty satisfied with my Kanayama
    Last edited by Thaeris; 04-28-2016 at 03:38 PM.

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  6. #45
    Senior Member blabbermouth markbignosekelly's Avatar
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    Some nice info on Horween shell cordovan

    All About Shell Cordovan – An Interview With Horween Leather Co. | BestLeather.org
    Shell Cordovan « Horween Leather Company

    Kanayama and Horween seem to use different tanning techniques, either way I love both of mine!
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  7. #46
    Senior Member celticcrusader's Avatar
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    Another thing you must take into account regarding the Cordovan Shell and it's thickness for a fine pair of handmade shoes or boots which are also naturally leather lined you couldn't use shell Cordovan any thicker than 1mm or 2mm, so that's obviously what the bespoke Shoe Boot maker would order from the tannery, now on the other hand Mr Naomi is only making strops so his order would be completely different.
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  8. #47
    Senior Member blabbermouth JimmyHAD's Avatar
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    I did a thickness comparison of some shell strops in a separate thread if anyone is curious ;

    http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ml#post1627179
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