Thread: Odd question about strops

Originally Posted by lightcs1776

Thanks, RayClem. I will definitely be looking for a replacement in the next few months. I'm wondering if another "poor man's strop" is worth while or a better strop would be worth the investment. Although I love to window shop, I simply will never spend $100.00 plus on a strop.

I would never spend $100.00 on a strop. The two vintage shell strops cost me less that$25.00 combined. I hit garage sales, flea markets, antique shops & junk shops always looking for vintage shaving gear. I got my shell Koken for $20.00 at an antique shop & my Jager Barber Supply Shell for $5.00 at a garage sale. These strops have a few nicks & dings & I sanded the bed places to smooth them out then I treated them with Ballistol. The Jager had been in an unheated wood shop for around 30 years & was really dry. By slowly treating it with small amounts of the Ballistol it now feels like a new strop. If you don't feel good restoring your strop there are guy's on here that would do it for you.

Slawman

I still use the reverse side of my beginner's strop (also full of nicks) with paste on it for the finish after honing. For a daily stop I'd suggest that (now you have learned), invest in a decent stop. I use an Illinois 827 'Russian' and find it great.

Interesting thread-When I made my home-made kangaroo strop recently. I stropped on the front side, which is sort of pebbly and rough-textured because that's just roo. Just for fun, I flipped it around and started stropping on the back side, which reminds me of a very finely-napped suede. My current post-shave stropping progression now involves 15-30 linen, then 15 strokes on the front of the roo, followed by 15 more on the finer back before I start working my way up my finer and finer shells across my rack (yeah, I'm one of those guys!). Do what works, but as Slawman says, if you do your detective work, you can often find vintage horse-hide shell at ridiculous prices when no one else is looking!

As others have said, you'll never go wrong with any Tony Miller strop, and there have been some great strops on our BST lately-I'm jonesing for a nice vintage Japanese shell real bad! Have fun!

My 2 cents.. take it with a grain of salt.

i have purchased $20 strop (shell, yes some needed more work than others) and i have purchased $400+ strop(westholme, NOS nakayamas, etc)... honest oppiion.. NO it is NOT the same... you can argue that a razor will strop just a nicely on a piece of old vintage shell (valid point) than in a new one.. and that a boarhide tripoi, or a roo strop, or some other buffalo and engish briddle are all in the same bucket... but honestly, for me the feeling is not the same when i strop in a NOS/NEW shell strop than when i have to invest a lot of time cleaning and reconditioning strop...

same applies for brushes, razors, houses, cars... Price for new is price for new, and price for old beat up stuff is price for that. Some times you are not paying for how good a well beaten W&B shaves against the performance of a mint chopper W&B... you are paying for the collectable item...

People need to understand there are two very different markets.. the market of collectors that want items that are usable but also in good condition, and prefereable new. and the market of users that want cheap and functional..
both are corect on what they want, but tryuing con convinve me that i should pay 100$ for a NOS mint nakayama strop just because i want it to be functional makes no sense.. why would the seler care that i want the item only for using it, only for it's functionality. if a collector wants an escher with label, that does not make the escher better at honing a razor, he's paying for how well preserved is a stone as additinal cost...

my point is, like it or not, we live ona world that values not only functionality but also beauty... this will sound pretty bad, my apologies in advance, but why would you preffer to date the prettiest girl in the class when you were young? wasn't the uggly girl just as functional? come one, this is the reality of human nature...
i have no issue with having my 20$ acquired shell strops, i like them and they are fine, but i also like my 400$ whestholme strop and i enjoy stroppig on it. all in all, i preffer my own made strop for my self (no, not making publicity, i dont need it, i'm making a point) every one preffer what they prefer. how lucky if what brings them joy is the ugly strop and the ugly razor...

if one cant pay more than 100$ for a strop it is fine, you atually dont "need" it.
if you can pay for it but you preffer not to.. that's smart you dont. "need" it.
for me it's hard to pay the extra 100$ (yeah i am no millionaire) but it's what i weanted... besides being functional, i wanted to marry the most beautiful girl in my class...



PS.. yeah i still think my wife is the prettiest of them all hahaha

Well put, @gabrielcr78. For me, it's not as much what I can afford. House is paid off and there are no other debts at the moment. It is more about what I value. I don't doubt a $400 strop will likely outperform a $20 strop. However, if I can get something closer to $20 that performs well, I would be satisfied (I looked at one of the members strips, and will likely go with it in the near future). Now, those Japanese smiling razors are really tempting, but my beautiful wife knows the combination to the gun safe, so...

"The ugly girl is just as functional..."

I damn near pissed myself! HAH!

Originally Posted by Srdjan

"The ugly girl is just as functional..."

I damn near pissed myself! HAH!

HAHAHAHA sorry folks, i really must apologize.. that really came out the wrong way :P
LOL but you all know what i meant

Originally Posted by gabrielcr78

HAHAHAHA sorry folks, i really must apologize.. that really came out the wrong way :P
LOL but you all know what i meant

I knew exactly what you meant. And my wife is still a beauty queen, so no harm done. Grin.

Thanks ligthcs1776
You are a gentleman and I'm sure she glows like the day u met her

Cheers to all our queens!