Thread: An FWE Russian Strop Tale

I posted that thread about vintage shell strops and left this one out because it is marked 'horsehide', not shell. This strop is thick. A full 4.5mm and though it was very clean when it came to me, and smooth, it was stiff as a board.

Chris Moss, the owner of Shave My Face forum once wrote a post where he described stropping on an old vintage strop that was like glass, and stiff as a board. That got my juices flowing and I wanted one. Well I got my wish, be careful what you ask for.

That was how this strop was and I didn't care for the feel when stropping. Still cool to have hanging, it is an FWE, and they made some of the most well thought of razors amongst the old barbers I knew up in north NJ in the '80s.

So I was on the web and came across Fromm Strop Dressing. I've never used anything on a strop but my palm, and an occasional drop of neatsfoot, and that rarely. I went to amazon, read the reviews and bought the stuff.

Laid the strop on a table and planned on doing it up with the newly acquired Fromm's. The way to hell is paved with good intentions. So I procrastinated until I'd gotten so familiar with that strop laying there that I didn't even see it anymore.

One day I came home and my cat had apparently jumped up on it and peeled out. I was really bummed. Anyway, months later I finally got with it. You could feel the claw marks with your fingers so I sanded them with some 600 grit I had laying around. Thanks to Euclid40 posting on strop rejuvenation I gently wiped the leather with a damp cloth and let it dry for a couple of days.

Then I followed the directions on the Fromm dressing and did both sides of the leather for a period of 4 days. Letting it dry 24 hours after each treatment. The end result is a useful strop that is still quite firm, but not stiff as a board, and still slick, but not like glass. The scars from the claws are not that visible and you cannot feel them anymore.