Thread: Multi Dot Honing Side

I have an "Army and Navy" strop made by the M.J. Rubin Company of New York. It could be a military issue strop because it has a Navy ID number (U.S.N. No. 3-595) imprinted on it, and it came with some other Navy medical items. Anyway, one side of the strop is dotted with a pattern of small indentions and is imprinted with "Multi Dot Honing Side". I guess this is a substitute for linen, but I have never seen another like it. Has anyone else had any experience with this type of surface? Is it meant to used as is, or could it be pasted with diamond or chrom ox? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards - Walt

A picture might help.

Is the strop leather new or has the strop been used?
If it has been used it would already have had paste
applied as per the "manual".

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

A picture might help.

Is the strop leather new or has the strop been used?
If it has been used it would already have had paste
applied as per the "manual".

I believe the strop may have been "new old stock" from the 1950s or 60s. It had been folded and stored away, so there are some light creases on the stropping side, but it looked as though it had never been used. As you can see, the surface doesn't look as though any type of dressing or paste has been applied to it. I was wondering why the dots were considered the honing side. It doesn't seem like just having indentions in the strop would assist in "honing" unless there was some sort of mechanical assist in the way of an abrasive paste.

Regards - Walt

The indentions look like a minimalist version of the back of a Russian leather
strop. My guess is that the divots are the result of a traction roller pulling
the leather through a cutter and across a compression roller.

You should be able to paste it...

I say you should use it as is. The "honing" side of the strop was intended to be used as is. This is called a russian style strop. It has an embossed side that allows for tuning the edge as it starts to pull a little bit. You see this styling on some vintage strops.

Here is an example:

Straightforward « Horween Leather Co.

An example of a modern version of this style of strop:

Old Dog Classic 830 Straight Razor Strops and the Original Hard Wool Felt Strops