Thread: Kanayama Cordovan Strop 90000 - Not the quality it used to be

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Something looks strange at the top clamp in the 2nd picture. If the top clamp is bent uneven, it will cause waves which will run down the strop.
If my strop is cupping, I pull it tight and cup it the other way by squeezing the sides with the other hand so the sides are low and the center is high. I then pull my hand down the strop maintaining the upwards cup several times.
Some never need it, but some do frequently. Mostly my thinner strops do this.
A matter of 'training' the leather

I have removed the clamp and been manipulating the leather as you said.
I'm hesitantly positive that it will eventually even out, the strop itself is very supple and feels like it will mold towards an acceptable shape.

The surface itself doesn't feel nearly as good as my old one.

Rubbing over it it feels like a film of dried up dirt/residue is on it.
Not glassy smooth as my old one, and near the upper part of the strop it becomes much thinner and the leather feels pretty bad there.
I've been literally scraping it slowly with the edge of a razor and it's getting slowly better.
You can feel a ton of small dots on the surface, it's pretty bad. After carefully scraping, the majority of the stropping surface starts to feel decent though, still stiff, but getting better, I'm hopeful.

Interestingly when scraping it's like a clear coat is coming off, shiny little pieces.

I'm curious how it will eventually turn out, but I do think there's a nice piece of leather in there somewhere. But for now I'm not putting my daily shavers on it.

Daily rubbing and some light scraping will have to do, microfiber cloths don't help and scraping is a must to even and smooth out the texture. Still very poor quality for the 90000 or any Kanayama for that matter. Uneven thickness, rough texture, cupping, hard & dirty feeling stropping surface. It was the last 90000 in stock when I bought it, probably for a reason.