I'm look for a vintage European strop and wonder if any of you guys had suggestions and any to avoid. One last thing i forgot to mention I'm on kinda of a small budget.
Printable View
I'm look for a vintage European strop and wonder if any of you guys had suggestions and any to avoid. One last thing i forgot to mention I'm on kinda of a small budget.
Why a European Strop when some of the best vintage strops ever made were done in the good old USA?
Idk just kinda thought a Euro one would be just as good and more unique.
When I first started out in this thing I collected strops and my goal was to have a strop from every critter that ever walked, crawled, swam or ran and I had a lot and every one was U.S made and to tell you the truth I don't recall ever seeing a strop that said it was made outside the U.S though strops weren't marked as to origin as I recall. They might say "scotch shell" or "russia" but that has nothing to do with origin.
You might try Eboy international sites.
Only overseas strop I know of that goes back to vintage is the Japanese Kanayama. Still making them in medium priced to high priced, but some of their older stuff is found on the bay once in awhile, and from what I've heard, they’re all good. The thing with vintage strops, I've got a half dozen, like any normal person, :rolleyes: is condition. If it is old and dried out, cracked and what have you it ain't a bargain at any price.
Many fine strops both from here and abroad advertise the use of Horween shell cordovan and other fine grades of leather. If ya didn't know that stuff comes from good old Chicago, USA. So foreign aint so foreign after all.
Good ole 827 Illinois been around a long time and won't break the bank when you cut it up. Tc
Kindal was making quite unique paddle strops.
I've got one with an ivory handle, with scrimshaw work on it, one side classical leather, other side cordovan.
I know there were also quality leather from Russia, but I don't know if they were manufacturing strops or only raw materials.
Otherwise, Illinois seemed to have producted top quality strops indeed, and japanese Kanayama is just as fine. :)
Edit : if you want me to check, I could ask the owner of the actual Kindal shop in Paris, she is selling old stock products, quite expensive but untouched goods.
Scrupleworks, Westholme, and Neil Miller all come to mind. Top quality strops makers. I am sure people from England stropped their blades too. At least I am reasonably sure.
I'm a bit confused as to why you specified a vintage strop. It's already been pointed out that you take a big chance on buying any old strop - and I don't see that vintage necessarily means better quality.
I do have quite a few older paddle strops that are travel size - these can be picked up pretty cheaply and are good for kamisori sized blades. I've bought these on the basis that if the existing leather is shot I still have the paddle itself that can be re-covered - and as Thaeris pointed out, you can get some old ones with ivory handles.
Or silver, I just recall having had a Mappin & Webb silver handled paddle for a time.
I also have a silver handles strop - it was hallmarked in my home city of Birmingham.
http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/...ps89f08790.jpg
If you are "into" collecting vintage items then vintage is what you would be looking for.
Mappin & Webb is my favorite brand. NOTHING they did was ever cheap and EVERYTHING they did was top quality. I would love to have a Mappin Webb silver paddle strop!
Some good names from European strop makers already came up. I would also add InJeNer, leder-tradition from Germany.
Just to come back to the Scrupleworks idea, he does restored strops. I have seen some wonderful pictures of some of his work with older loom and paddle strops. Maybe someone who owns one of his restores could chip in?
I'm starting to wonder if hanging strops was a relatively newer style whereas paddle strops were "pre-hanging" style. I see a lot of vintage paddle strops.
I think there were only paddle strop until mid XIX, then "retractable hanging strop" in the mid XIX and classical hanging strop in the late XIX / beginning of the XX (but it's only a guess).
("retractable strop"
Attachment 235448
Attachment 235449 )
Great, those retractable strops are completely new for me.
Martin or Zak could probably be more specific about the datation of the apparition of the different kinds of strops.
I may be completly mistaking.
I suspect hanging strops were originally used by barbers and as barbering developed they became increasingly popular. The paddles and retractables were made for personal use and just fell out of favor over time. Paddles just morphed into items for travel and bench strops for heavy duty specialized use.
Keep in mind Horween leather is considered by many to be top shelf.
Made in your home town of Chicago.
I have a Scrupleworks strop and I am very happy with it. It is Horween vegetable tanned strop.
Are you sure you want vintage and European? And why? Just asking.
Actually it was 'The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be.' I read that when Henry Armstrong beat Lou Ambers for the lightweight championship in 1939, Ambers sang that tune on the way back to the dressing room. Dunno if there is any truth in it ............ :deadhorse:
There is something to be said for older strops if you can get them in good condition, all modern leather is mostly taken from beef bred animals and quite young animals at that, past makers used fallen animals including old well worked hardy bred draught Horses with much thicker hides and over develop hind quarters the shells on these Horses were thicker and stronger, Kanayama Cordovan shell can be 4 even 5mm thick that's very difficult to find makes me think Mr Naomi-san of Kanayama as a very old and trusted supplier of these shells.
True great strops are made in my back yard which I think is pretty cool and I've been considering one, however they seem all to common and I'm a fool for less common, old, European thing just always have been. I do realize that they may be about the same quality as many strops. One last thing I do realize it may be common in Europe but not so common in the states and I'm alright with that.
Much appreciated!
You know, I'm not all that sure the kanayama strops are cordovan shell. I know I have a pair of Cordovan Shell Shoes and I have the Raven Strop and the leather is exactly the same on the strop as my shoes meaning appearance and feel and my kanayama 90K is totally different. If it is Cordovan then the processing of the material produces a whole different animal so to speak.
Funny you bring this up. I have a half dozen vintage strops marked Shell. They are not all thick, but some are. Others are thin along the lines of Neil Miller's shell. I have a couple of C-Mons marked shell that are quite thick, and though it is not marked 'shell' on the strop, the Certifyd Red Imp is advertised as shell in a catalog and it is thicker than the thin stuff. So ......... I'm going to take some pix tomorrow of the edges of these and post them so you see what I mean. BTW, I figure the thick ones marked shell must be, or they wouldn't have marked them as such back then ........ :thinking:
I don't have cordovan shell shoes, nor do I have the Raven strop, but I know what you mean about the Kanayama 90,000. I had the 90 and sold it, regretted it and bought a NOS 80,000 made in that same time frame, when Zeth Lent first posted about them here. They are quite thick. As far as feel I don't know. Zeth did say that they were cordovan, but I don't remember if he specified 'shell'. Whatever it is, it is a heckuva strop. :shrug:
A thought.....At times such as this, I really miss Neil Miller. Sorry! Carry on!:)
Tom in the words of the master himself.
Choosing and Using a Straight Razor - pt 2, Strops | The Shaving Room
Fendrihan sells the kanayama's and he lists them as Bovine. I don't know why there is this lack of knowledge as to what the strop is made from.
There are companies in the UK some of the oldest tanneries in Europe who still produce shell after all the UK makes the finest bespoke shoes in the world so why wouldn't they have great leather producers as well makes sense.
Shell Cordovan, Cordovan Leather, Clayton Cordovan
J&FJ Baker & Co Ltd | Britain's only remaining traditional oak bark tannery | Colyton, Devon
Apparently only five digits Kanayama are made from cordovan. (So a Kanayama "3" won't be, whereas a Kanayama "30.000" will be).
The difference between the 30.000, 40.000 ..... 90.000 is the thickness of the cordovan, and the add of a bovine strop for the highest numbers (it's not a question of grit).
I have a video talking about the fabrication of kanayamas somewhere, I'll post it when I'll find it. :)
edit : well, sadly it was too old, the video is gone.