Thread: Hand American strop set up

thoughts on the Hand American strop set up

I have the Old Dog 830.
It's stiff as a board! By laminating the two components together Keith has made a strop that won't sag.
I like the draw. It has good resistance & feels almost "grainy". That doesn't sound so good, but it really is.
As for the embossed side. It works well. It's fast. Both in terms of laps required, & actual speed.

You won't use another strop that feels anything like it. I suspect they are a love them or hate them kind of strop. I love mine.

I have the Chicago Special and one of the 'Signature' strops, which is an English Bridle on one side and Cordovan processed cowhide on the other.

I have to say that of my three strops (these two and a Kanayama 70000) I like the Signature the most. The English Bridle leather is my favourite to strop on. It has a great feel and the razor edges seem to love it.

As for the Chicago special, I don't use the embossed 'Russian' side very often but the light smooth feel of the other side is very very nice. Untreated cowhide.

They are stiff, but in my case my Signature strop came apart and is no longer glued. I liked it more when it was glued but the seperation hasn't had any effect on the performance of the strop. Now that it is seperate the individual sides have normal flex and aren't so stiff. The Chicago Special isn't board stiff but is very stiff. The maker says that is how they used to be made, thick and stiff, and that is why he did it that way.

Personally I like the handless thick leather that you get from Hand American. They are a little hard to get a hold of from time to time, but the products are great.

I had a Chicago Special and a Signature. I tried the former and never took the latter out of the wrapper as I did not care for the feel of the laminated pieces. Too stiff for my tastes so I sold them in the classifieds. The cordovan strop that HA is selling through Classic is a great strop but you could buy two SRD premiums for the price of the HA and have enough left over for a tub of Castle Forbes. I really like it though.