Thread: Vintage shell strops and couple of horse hide

Otay, from down in the vaults, here are 5 .
One has another 'Certifyd' variation on the bottom. Naomi is there.
4 are stamped for suppliers. Fisher, Koken, and Popo ( a Japanese domestic supplier) and Derby.



From left, the 3rd and 5th came in plastic advertising Red Imp strops, razors, and shears....

Tom, those are some beautiful strops. The vault is a good place to keep those top of the line beauties.
interesting that some of these came to you wrapped in "Red Imp" packaging with Japanese writing. Any thoughts on Red Imp being a Japanese company at some point? I have always assumed it was an American company but I think it is possible that it could be a Japanese that exported quality strops to the American and other western markets. I have been curious about the origin of the name "Red Imp". When you google it you get nothing related to American culture. On the other hand, if you include Japan or Japanese in the search you will see that the Red Imp is steep in Japanese folklore. Wouldn't an American company have call this the Red Devil strop company? Just thinking out loud here. Also, the verbiage (and spelling) on the Certifyd logo has always seemed rather strange to me. I lived in Japan for 4 1/2 years in late 80s and early 90s and it reminds me of the T-shirts that the Japanese kids would wear with the American sayings that were often not quite right in regard to translation. It looks like some of that strange verbiage has been replaced on the more recent version shown on your strops and others I have seen. Maybe others may info on this subject. Just saying.....?

Certified was always an American outfit. They probably licensed their logo for the Japanese Domestic market and collected a fee for doing that the same way Chicago Metallic licensed their name to a Chinese outfit to produce bake-ware using the Chicago metallic name.

Most of these early strop makers were actually belting outfits who made leather belts which ran early factories. Strops were a sideline.

Originally Posted by ajkenne

Tom, those are some beautiful strops. The vault is a good place to keep those top of the line beauties.
interesting that some of these came to you wrapped in "Red Imp" packaging with Japanese writing. Any thoughts on Red Imp being a Japanese company at some point? I have always assumed it was an American company but I think it is possible that it could be a Japanese that exported quality strops to the American and other western markets. I have been curious about the origin of the name "Red Imp". When you google it you get nothing related to American culture. On the other hand, if you include Japan or Japanese in the search you will see that the Red Imp is steep in Japanese folklore. Wouldn't an American company have call this the Red Devil strop company? Just thinking out loud here. Also, the verbiage (and spelling) on the Certifyd logo has always seemed rather strange to me. I lived in Japan for 4 1/2 years in late 80s and early 90s and it reminds me of the T-shirts that the Japanese kids would wear with the American sayings that were often not quite right in regard to translation. It looks like some of that strange verbiage has been replaced on the more recent version shown on your strops and others I have seen. Maybe others may info on this subject. Just saying.....?

The strop-wrappers are in English. I already put the strops away. I will find a picture.
Extolling Certifyd strops. Picture of a Red Imp razor and shears. Clear wrapper. Blue printing. I have seen them in Kanayama threads here as others have received the same thing. Lots of differences in these, yet seem from the same hand.
Why would obviously Japanese-made strops arrive with those wrappers? They had lots?
I feel that hides from the USA were sent to Japan to have strops made of them. Stamped and packaged.
Back to the USA! Made in USA!. Naomi-Son's family has made strops for over 100 years. The evidence is interesting.

That is one sweet collection of vintage strops! Simply stunning! Thank you for sharing!

Tom, Thanks for clarifying. It makes even More sense now.

Some nice Red Imp strops sold this past few days. Did anybody here score them, they looked like they were in very nice condition. Was hoping a member here had scored at least one of them. They were on the bay.

Tom, most excellent and thank you for sharing

well if any of you guys feel like you have to many vintage shell strops I will gladly be willing to buy one haha.

Originally Posted by Toroblanco

Some nice Red Imp strops sold this past few days. Did anybody here score them, they looked like they were in very nice condition. Was hoping a member here had scored at least one of them. They were on the bay.

Just went and looked. A nice one with dirty secondary is going for 130 bucks.
On the Red Imps....I had one, it was alright. Reminded of bridle. Horsehide?
Definitely not shell horsehide I think.
It's the magical name, 'Red Imp'. Like 'DublDuck'!
Everyone must-have!