From looking at the pictures it does look a little dry and will need the condtioning but the wear on it looks to be mostly from heavy use in normal everyday stropping. If you look at the wear it is pretty consistent with an X patteren stroke and you can see where there is no real wear is where the user was performing his flips. I think this will serve you just fine for many years. Also small inconsistencies really won't effect the blade its the large ones you would have to worry about. Strop with an X stroke and you will be good to go.