Kanayama Strops

Hello folks,
Ive been thinking of getting a Kanayama strop. Ive been reading on the forums about these, and from what i gather they are the best strops. I always read about them on forums as Cordovan horse shell. Although on the websites that sell them lists them as horse hide. I maybe wrong, but I kinda agree they are probably listing them correctly. Genuine shell is hard to source, particularly for strops. The reason why is the shoe companys get first dibs. Its hard to believe that Kanayama can source a shell thats 4mm thick. Although in Japan it may be different. To get a thicker shell you would have to get it from an older horse, and Kanayama uses younger horses.

I know that horse hide and shell is two different parts of the horse. Shell is a muscle under the hide on the horses butt, and horse hide is the actual skin/hide. I know horween shells are 1.5mm these days at the thickest. The term "Cordovan" Kanayama uses could mean the tanning process the leather goes through. From what i hear that Kanayama hand finishes these and they feel similar to shell. Maybe thats why people think that they are genuine shell, because of the slick fast draw. Maybe some of you guys who has experience with the strops could chime in. Again i could be wrong. In the end it really doesn't matter as long as it performs well and does what its supposed to do on the razors apex. My self im thinking of getting a 30000 or a 50000.

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Originally Posted by Southbound

Hello folks,
Ive been thinking of getting a Kanayama strop. Ive been reading on the forums about these, and from what i gather they are the best strops. I always read about them on forums as Cordovan horse shell. Although on the websites that sell them lists them as horse hide. I maybe wrong, but I kinda agree they are probably listing them correctly. Genuine shell is hard to source, particularly for strops. The reason why is the shoe companys get first dibs. Its hard to believe that Kanayama can source a shell thats 4mm thick. Although in Japan it may be different. To get a thicker shell you would have to get it from an older horse, and Kanayama uses younger horses.

I know that horse hide and shell is two different parts of the horse. Shell is a muscle under the hide on the horses butt, and horse hide is the actual skin/hide. I know horween shells are 1.5mm these days at the thickest. The term "Cordovan" Kanayama uses could mean the tanning process the leather goes through. From what i hear that Kanayama hand finishes these and they feel similar to shell. Maybe thats why people think that they are genuine shell, because of the slick fast draw. Maybe some of you guys who has experience with the strops could chime in. Again i could be wrong. In the end it really doesn't matter as long as it performs well and does what its supposed to do on the razors apex. My self im thinking of getting a 30000 or a 50000.

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You're right about the shell versus the horsehide, but .......... I have a number of vintage strops that are marked 'shell' and are 3-4mm thick. AFAIK 'shell' isn't a tanning process the way that 'Russian' is. Like you ....... I also could be wrong ...... :)

I have a Kanayama and it is a darn good strop. Might call it my Sunday go to meeting strop. I only use it on special occasions and use the lesser horsehides for everyday work. Whether Kanayama is horse or shell has been brought up in the past, and I don't recall anyone coming to a firm conclusion. One way or the other, you won't be sorry if you get one. :chapeau

I have some very old examples to the 50's, at least.
Beautiful work. I can say I have no experience with anything newer.

I have handled several Kanayama strops and they all have the same awesome surface prep. If you would like to save some money, consider the Kanayama 3. In my opinion the difference between the cheapest and most expensive versions is trivial

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

You're right about the shell versus the horsehide, but .......... I have a number of vintage strops that are marked 'shell' and are 3-4mm thick. AFAIK 'shell' isn't a tanning process the way that 'Russian' is. Like you ....... I also could be wrong ...... :)

I have a Kanayama and it is a darn good strop. Might call it my Sunday go to meeting strop. I only use it on special occasions and use the lesser horsehides for everyday work. Whether Kanayama is horse or shell has been brought up in the past, and I don't recall anyone coming to a firm conclusion. One way or the other, you won't be sorry if you get one. :chapeau

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I read that one place quit selling them because of quality issues. Are they still made very well?

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Originally Posted by Southbound

I read that one place quit selling them because of quality issues. Are they still made very well?

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I don't know the answer to that question. I got mine from the batch that first was introduced to the USA through a vendor in Canada who went out of biz years ago. The vendor who stopped selling them because of quality control issues said, in 2012, that 2 out of 3 strops he received were not saleable because of "visible defects."

So here we are in 2017 and Kanayama is still selling his strops, and the vendor who made that statement in 2012 has been out of business for years. So I can't speak from experience in seeing the Kanayama product for the past 5 years, but I'm thinking that if there was a continuing quality control issue there would be plenty of people squawking on SRP, and elsewhere.

I would just make sure that you buy from a vendor who will guarantee no 'visible defects', and who accepts returns if the strop is not satisfactory, and is returned in the condition received.

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Originally Posted by Southbound

I read that one place quit selling them because of quality issues. Are they still made very well?

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Ok, so my 70,000 is the perfect strop, purchased a few months ago from Aframes. The surface is prepared perfectly, no issues there. The very end was left a bit coarse (top corner at the buckle). To me, this is not a quality issue. The main stropping area is a bit wavy, so the leather is not a perfectly flat surface. Not bumpy, just wavy.. To me this is also not an issue. Would I prefer if it was perfectly flat? Yes, at that price tag. Is it a functional issue? Not at all. Having handled lots of leather, I found this to be normal.. it's natural material after all.

Don't overthink your purchase.

Many Japanese craftsmen have a view of beauty found in the imperfect. Handmade items are imperfect, often for a reason.

You cannot go wrong with any of the line up from Naomisan. And yes, he is still the craftsman and continues producing his strops.

Definitely a hand made beautifully crafted strop. I have 3 at the moment, 2 #70000 and an #80000. Each are a little different from the other, but that variation is as mentioned the beauty of hand made product, so that variation isn't quality issues, it's varying degrees of greatness. As far as where to get one. I have bought a #70000 and an #80000 from Takeshi at Aframestokyo no quality issues. I have also bought from Fendrihan a #70000 and had no issues. As far as Mr Naomi continuing his production, he is in his 90' has no apprentice nor any one to take over should he retire, I have 3 just in case.

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.