Strop guidance

My father picked up a strop in an antique store a long time ago thinking he would try shaving with a straight. He never did. He lives across the country and I'm trying to decide if I should use this pigskin strop he has or not. It looks rough to me, but he says it has no deep cuts or abrasions. I'm not so sure about that looking at the pictures... it looks like someone really didn't know how to strop!

What do you all recommend doing - using this strop or buying a new one? I don't want to mess up my first razors because I'm being cheap. Maybe I can give this strop a little love to make it usable? I'm going to be travelling/living out of the country, using a normal barbers hone I got from Glen along with the strop to maintain my four blades, so what I choose will be "long term".

Any advice is appreciated!!

Looks not to bad to me. This will be a fine strop to learn on. Nic the heck out of this one instead of a new one.

Do you think I should be worried about messing up my edge because of inconsistencies in the leather?

How dry is that strop? it may need conditioning
It looks to be in pretty good shape. But im only looking at the pictures...

btw: Welcome to SRP

My father says that its on the dry side, but isn't "dried out". I have some Redwing mink oil that I will use to recondition it if it looks worth reusing.

My main concern are the small inconsistencies. Someone must have messed up their edges on this strop right? Is this abnormal strop wear? The fact that the upper layer has been worn away to a lighter color worries me, as well as a few smaller lines that I can see in the pics. Will these aspects detract significantly from the effectiveness of my stropping?

Thanks for the welcome, I've been lurking for awhile! I got my first razors from SRP, and got connected to Glen here too. I really appreciate everyones comments in the forums!

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.