Thread: Old Strop: Looking for info & advice

My dad still uses the same barber we started going to 20 years ago (I would, but I moved). My dad told him I was making the switch to straight razor, and he enthusiastically offered him one of his old strops to give me (he's got a nice display of vintage straight razors and accessories in his shop). How generous! 22" x 2.5" horsehide/woven linen.

I tried finding some info on this strop, but I was unsuccessful. Does anyone know about this? Good, bad, or trivial?

I know little about strops, besides what I've read and seen as examples (mostly new nice ones) on SRP. To me, this strop doesn't look safe to use on my new-to-me freshly-Lynn-honed Dovo.

I'm going to restore it. Partly for learning, and it'll be cool to hang on the wall if nothing else. If I can make it usable, maybe even as a pasted strop, that'd be 100x better!

Please don't hate me for posting so many photos, but I'm being overly thorough since I don't know exactly what I have (physically or condition-wise).

The top 1/3 of it is checked pretty badly. The middle 1/3 is very mildly checked, but does have one pretty deep crack that's about 1" long. The free-end 1/3 looks decent (and apears to be the only part used recently). How bad is the checking? Salvageable/usable or no?

After reading through the strop restoration threads, here's the procedure I have in mind... Please tell me if I'm on the right track!
1) Sounds like saddle soap is going to be the first step, to clean it and soften it up. I'll disassemble the strop, lay the hide flat on some newspaper, and work saddle soap into it with a microfiber cloth. Wipe the excess off and let sit to see what it does.
2) Second step will probably depend on how well step 1 works, but I'm thinking maybe some light work with a pumice stone would benefit it.
3) Hopefully at this point it'd be softer (hopefully warp will be eliminated) and smooth, so then I'd want to try some tallow-based lather and glass bottle working.

I was originally thinking neatsfoot oil was going to play a major role here, but after reading through the threads, I think saddle soap and good lather/bottle working sounds better.

EDIT:
For the linen side, I saw someone suggest soaking in Woolite. Would a soft bristle brush scrub help, too?

EDIT 2:
I expect the warp to go away after saddle soap/lather/glass bottle treatment, but I saw mention of ironing in the barber's manual. I'd look more into that if the warp was still evident.