Thread: Shell Cordovan Strop Question

Originally Posted by Neil Miller

I mean, you don't go out and by yourself a special tank-like utility vehicle with off-road capability when you live in the centre of a crowded town with difficult parking, etc, just because the SUV costs a bomb. You do the the research and get the vehicle that best suits you (which as the enlightened amongst us all know is a motorcycle... cue for heated discussion here!).

No, no, no ..... If it costs more it has to be better ! ( I rarely get the excuse to use the emoticon wagging a finger)

Originally Posted by altshaver

Alright, I think found the cordovan strops the original poster was talking about.

Here (Scroll Down):

Strops

I have read good things about this vendor. The Horween stamp looks legitimate. And from what I have been told, the lengths look about right for what one can expect of this type of leather. Wow, a 3inch wide cordovan strop! I actually believe these are what they are being made out to be. These strops remind me of strops made by a Badger and Blade member.

Cordovan strops - Badger & Blade

I own one of the English Bridle strops from Walking Horse and really love it. You can really feel the leather as they worked hard to find a process that uses the least amount of waxes. I would put it dead center on the draw spectrum with Chicago special being fast and latigo being heavy. Solid craftsmanship with a fair price tag.

I would like to try one of their Horween Cord strops next, as the only cord strops I have tried is the Nanayama and my vintage strops which I have no idea what they are made of except being labeled as shell.

I have a hard time believing that all of these vintage strops are Genuine Cord since they were massed produced.

However, a well preserved, and well broken in vintage shell strop gives the shaver one of the best stropping experiences one could ask for. I think they tend to be just a tad faster on the draw spectrum. You can find some great deals on these as well for 20-40 shipped if you look hard and are patient.

I have a real passion for strops and enjoy trying out different leathers.

I wonder if the glue and pet food industries furnished more horse hide/cordovan years ago than is available now ? Do they still use horse components for glue at all ? Point being that possibly there was more material available then than now ?

I had a friend who managed stores for Florsheim Shoes for years. Some years ago I had a yen to get a pair of Florsheim shell cordovans. My friend told me they would wear like iron but were not as comfortable for all day wearing as cowhide because they didn't breath the way cowhide will.

I know shell cordovan is great for concealed carry holsters that go inside the trousers because of it's water repellent properities. At least that is what I read.

Originally Posted by jimmyfingers

I have a hard time believing that all of these vintage strops are Genuine Cord since they were massed produced.

I used to think the same thing (and am still not sure), but in talking to a vintage clothing lady about the high volume of horsehide jackets (e.g., almost all of the US Army Air Corps, and probably much of the US Navy WWII bomber jackets, not to mention Sears, and numbers of other retailers) available through the 40's to early 50's, she pointed out something interesting. There were still so many horses being used around the world and the US in labor-saving applications (plow-horses, milk/ice wagons, urban deliveries, rural transport, and apparently from old photos, in support of many of the "modern" armies of the world), that there was an abundance of horseflesh available for use. I would guess that the significant reduction in the horse population (now mostly recreational, I would guess), no wonder Tony Miller, and others are finding it difficult to find good sources. Additionally, as the availability of, and demand for the horsehides has diminished, I would also guess that there are far fewer "processors", especially those you might call artisans. Just some anecdotal/historical info that was interesting to me, and maybe boring to others.

Originally Posted by Tuxedo7

I used to think the same thing (and am still not sure), but in talking to a vintage clothing lady about the high volume of horsehide jackets (e.g., almost all of the US Army Air Corps, and probably much of the US Navy WWII bomber jackets, not to mention Sears, and numbers of other retailers) available through the 40's to early 50's, she pointed out something interesting. There were still so many horses being used around the world and the US in labor-saving applications (plow-horses, milk/ice wagons, urban deliveries, rural transport, and apparently from old photos, in support of many of the "modern" armies of the world), that there was an abundance of horseflesh available for use. I would guess that the significant reduction in the horse population (now mostly recreational, I would guess), no wonder Tony Miller, and others are finding it difficult to find good sources. Additionally, as the availability of, and demand for the horsehides has diminished, I would also guess that there are far fewer "processors", especially those you might call artisans. Just some anecdotal/historical info that was interesting to me, and maybe boring to others.

Exactly so. In fact in London alone in 1900 there were over 300,000 horses on the streets just hauling carriages, trams and delivery wagons - add to that all the other horses used on farms, in the military (cavalry!), and other diverse occupations, then we have an immense horse population - no wonder that use was made of them when they died. It took until 1915 to totally mechanise the transport system in London, but many horses must still have been used in more rural areas.

Data from Chicago dated 1916 show that there were 16.9 fatalities for every 10,000 horse-drawn vehicles.

It wasn't until 1912 that traffic census counts in New York showed more automobiles than horses for the first time.

The horse didn't disappear from the streets all at once, of course. Even so, heavy haulage was still the province of the horse, and this did not change until the 1920s.

Large horses for heavy work are another avenue to explore - take the Percheron breed, for instance. It was one of the choicest draft breeds in the US - in 1915 there were 40,000 brood-mares registered for this breed alone - that excludes studs and young horses of the same breed! Over half a million draft horses were used by the military in WW1 alone!

You would have thought that the expansion of the railway in the US would have quickly put paid to horse deliveries, but all that train-transported material had to get to the railway somehow - and that somehow in the early part of the 20th century was largely via horse power.

As stated above, the military made use of enormous numbers of horses in WW1, and again in WW2. In 1949 the US Government remount program still had an enormous impact on the country's pleasure-horse use.

I think that you would have to be a dreamer or very young not to appreciate the vast amount of equine product available, even in the 1950s. I have been accused of being a bit of a dreamer but I'm not very young, and I can recall work horses in the street from when I was a little boy. In fact, one of my earliest memories concerning horses is when I stumbled down a farm ditch and landed on top of a dead one - it was dark and gory all over, and my parents reckoned it had been skinned. Dam' strop makers...

Regards,
Neil

Here's a 12 minute video on how Horween shell cordovan is made Horween Genuine Shell Cordovan on Vimeo though it's for shoes not strops

I love that video. That rolling machine is awesome. The big vat with butt-liquor written on the side is cool too.

Originally Posted by jimmyfingers

I own one of the English Bridle strops from Walking Horse and really love it. You can really feel the leather as they worked hard to find a process that uses the least amount of waxes. I would put it dead center on the draw spectrum with Chicago special being fast and latigo being heavy. Solid craftsmanship with a fair price tag.

I would like to try one of their Horween Cord strops next, as the only cord strops I have tried is the Nanayama and my vintage strops which I have no idea what they are made of except being labeled as shell.

I have a hard time believing that all of these vintage strops are Genuine Cord since they were massed produced.

However, a well preserved, and well broken in vintage shell strop gives the shaver one of the best stropping experiences one could ask for. I think they tend to be just a tad faster on the draw spectrum. You can find some great deals on these as well for 20-40 shipped if you look hard and are patient.

I have a real passion for strops and enjoy trying out different leathers.

THanks for all the amazing information. The history given here is unreal. Who would have thought about so many horses? That video is really cool too. I never knew there was so much to tanning leather. WE used to tack deer hides up in the sun and pour salt on them, but we weren't too brite then either.

Question, if you own the Bridle strop from walkin horse, are you going to review it? I have purchased the cordovan, but would love to know more since the bridle leather seems to be popular among the nice strop makers.

THe cordovan is something else. I love it, but it really is a different feel and is not nearly as slick as I thought. It has as much or more drag than the old DOvo, but the shaves actually feel better than anything. I am sure its mental, but even if I am crazy it feels good !

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I wonder if the glue and pet food industries furnished more horse hide/cordovan years ago than is available now ? Do they still use horse components for glue at all ? Point being that possibly there was more material available then than now ?

I had a friend who managed stores for Florsheim Shoes for years. Some years ago I had a yen to get a pair of Florsheim shell cordovans. My friend told me they would wear like iron but were not as comfortable for all day wearing as cowhide because they didn't breath the way cowhide will.

I know shell cordovan is great for concealed carry holsters that go inside the trousers because of it's water repellent properities. At least that is what I read.

You are dead correct on that one :-)