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I am looking into buying a vintage strop at a local antique store, it's a Keen Kutter brand two layer leather. What do I need to know about buying a vintage strop also is there an advantage to having to layers of leather vs. one piece of leather and one piece of canvas?
I am not knowledgeable about the Keen Kutter two leather strop and can not comment about the two different leathers, but Keen Kutter is a top brand and is worth looking at. I would check for suppleness and flexibility of the leather, is it severely weathered, has the surface dried and cracked, wrinkly, how badly nicked, cut or scraped is it. Look for anything that would impede performance, then look at it from an appearance standpoint.
It depends on how the strop was stored too, if the leather has embedded dirt on it it that would trash your edge in half a stroke. There was a member who couple of years ago tried to use a belt she picked at goodwill and suffered this exact scenario.
I'd say if you're not quite sure about the strop, you're probably better off getting something of known quality. It'll be a shame to damage your brand new edge on a poor strop - keep in mind that fixing the edge will set you back $20-$30.