What to do? What to do?

Just before my wife got pregnant (like days before the plus sign popped up) i was preparing to get into straight razor shavin and bought an old razor had it honed and bought a strop. Well needless to say i was very involved in working more and helping the wife with her pregnancy stuff so my time was strapped and she wasn't thrilled about me sliding a razor across the skin of my neck before our first born came into the world, so my new hobby was shelved till recently. when i took out my shaving stuff i noticed that my strop was pasted with a very small sticker that said "Made in Pakistan". This is in no way to be construed as racial but its been my experience in knives at least that the tag "Made in Pakistan" isn't usually a badge of high quality.

Now that my concern is out there, is it possible that this is a quality product or am i wasting strokes of my razor?

Dude, dude! Calm down! Yes, it is not sounding good. A picture of the strop and surfaces will help. You will receive help! Good Luck!

I have a feeling i'll keep it but get a reputable brand. Maybe use this one to experiment with pastes or something. There's nothing so wrong with it. It does seem to crown in the middle. Maybe because its handle is flat and you grip it parallel to the leather so it curls the handle and hence the leather of the strop. But i'll get a pic up soon as i can. A few small nicks at the top and bottom from learning the feel of stropping.

I can't speak to the quality, or the lack thereof, but if you grip it in front of the handle maybe it would help get rid of the crown ? One way or the other, it will probably be good for something. I wouldn't recommend a pakistani razor but not sure if they could mess up a piece of leather. :)

I've been stropping on a guitar strap that's probably from China. And I certainly tell the difference when i have not stropped. I'm just saying this strop may be low quality but still work good. Try testing it, maybe strop on newspaper and see if there's a difference or not stropping with it at all and see what happens. Just to see if it's having a negative effect. I think i'd keep it at least for paste but we all have the "need" to acquire more in this hobby.

Yeah I wouldn't worry too much about it. You won't have wasted money particularly if you use it for learning and practising on. As Jimmy said, it is hard to screw up leather: at worst it is probably just cheap stuff perfect for making mistakes on.:)

James.

So true. Might try what i saw in another thread on strops. That member made a strop out of deer hide. I'm sure i have some laying around from my hunting days.

If the strop is made in Pakistan , you should check and make sure it's real leather . I remember someone posting about a cheap strop that looked like leather , but was actually made from some kind of cardboard IIRC .