I am taking a short vacation and wanted an inexpensive travel strop. I don't do a lot of traveling and my home strop is an awesome SRP, so when I dropped $15 on an ebay strop, that came with a straight razor, I didn't have much hope it would be useful. I've blown $15 in worse ways, time and again, so I am not upset about it.

The razor is a piece of crap.. a cheap Pakistani blade in awful black plastic scales. I don't think it is even worth being used as a practice blade for honing. Frankly, I don't care. I'll either use it a sacrificial blade for honing, or glue it closed and use it as a paper weight.

I had hoped the strop would be useful.. not sure.

The hardware is really cheap. I could just tie it to a doorknob and ditch the hardware. The 'linen' side is white nylon webbing. Very stiff, but a light draw. If nothing else can be put in service the web side can. The leather is unbelievable stiff. Finished black on one side and raw on the back. The finish side looks almost like it was painted. And the near edge, the side closest to my hand (I am right hand dominant), has a slight ridge along the length of.

I've tried to loosen it up with loads of palm rubbing but it has gotten more of an 'alligator' texture to it if nothing else. I didn't try any kind of oil. I don't think it will help.

Can I make it a week without leather? If I had to, I could take the SRP. The web side will be usable. I am afraid to use the finished side of the leather, but I am curious if the back side is of any value. Pretty stiff, smooth suede but not ridge to contend with.

Try as I did, I can't get a good picture of the ridge but trust me that I wouldn't run even my least favorite blade over it, let alone one of the ones I wanted to take with me. The alligator texture is obvious.
The second pic is of the nylon web.

Ditch the leather and go just with the Web?