Thread: Kanayama Strops

We shave with razors ground by hand. We hone by hand on stones, some of whom are natural rocks dug from the ground. We strop by hand on leather that typically comes from a once-living mammal that contended with the bites, nicks, scratches, scrapes, and cuts that all mammals experience during their lifetime. We shave by hand on a face that itself has experienced its share of weathering due to exposure to aging, sun, heat, cold, scrapes, etc.

The miracle of wet shaving is that we can combine all these imperfect ingredients and still have a satisfying experience.

If you want something that is visually perfect, avoid handmade products. The beauty of handmade items is that they do contain imperfections such that no two are exactly alike. They are works of art and should valued as such.

If the imperfections are such that the functionality of the item is impaired, that is different altogether.

Actually if any of you have any Horween Shell products they feel absolutely nothing like the kanayama strops. I have some Horween watch straps and a pair of Horween shell shoes as well as the Raven strop and all three feel exactly the same. So, I don't know what the Kanayama strops are and I have two of them. I suspect horse hide with some proprietary processing. But that's a guess. True shell has a surface like patent leather meaning kind of hard and very slick and very thin.

As previous posters have mentioned, this topic has been tackled several times.

Kanayama maker uses a proprietary method, involving a large metal drum filled with his own liquid mixture of ingredients for treating the leather. Following this, he uses various powders and liquids to finish the surface. There was an online video some years back of a Japanese television show, which had a segment which showed Naomi-san's workshop and had brief footage of some of his processes. It was a world away from the tanning process used by Horween on their Shells.

As to whether he uses the Shell membrane, there does not seem to be a decisive answer, but given that it takes Horween 6 months to tan their Shells, I suspect he does not.

I have used raw vegetable tan horse hides and it is possible to see on the reverse of the hide, where the Shell membrane meets the normal part of the skin. It is quite easy to differentiate between the two areas. I see no evidence of the membrane characteristics in the Kanayama strops that I own. But without asking the man directly, and having an absolutely clear understanding of all his processes, any discussion is basically speculation.

The important thing to take away from the discussion, is that the Kanayama surface is quite different to that found on Shell Cordovan 'shells' such as those produced by Horween / Shinki-Hikaku / Rocinante / Clayton.