Thread: eBay strops?

I'm looking at getting a new strop and I've seen quite a few on eBay for fairly cheap. Has anyone tried any of the buy it now strops from there? If so I'm wondering if they're decent and worthwhile. I'm not wanting to spend a lot on a strop just because I anticipate a nick or two out of carelessness.

Most of the cheap strops on Eboy are just that. Buy from a known source. You can get a vintage strop and if you are careful get a really superior strop for a song. Some elbow grease and you'll have a strop that will last all your life.

You get what you pay for, so buyer beware. My first strop years ago was from the bay at a great price. It has been in the landfill for quite some time. Check the vendors here and I'm sure you'll find one within your budget. On a side note, when comes to straight razors, shaving, stropping, or honing, the word carelessness should not even be in your vocabulary.

I have a star shaving strop and an SRD Premium I. The Star strop was my first and is still a wonderful strop in my opinion. You could do worse than to start with one of these.

Hey Spendur, I googled the difinition for "mogwai". The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 (Jyutping: mo1 gwaai3) (Mandarin Chinese: 魔鬼; pinyin: móguǐ) meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".

I didn't see "Old" before devil anywhere...

I say carelessness only because I am still a bit new and I have put a few small nicks into my poor mans strop. I will either look for a vintage or check vendors here for something.

I am just trying to keep my shaving expenses lower to keep SWMBO happy.

Star shaving has a $13 "bench strop"...that's a good inexpensive one to learn on. Don't go vintage unless you know what to look for and don't mind doing some work to get it up to snuff.

When I was ready to move on from my poor man strop (I nicked it up pretty well while first learning) I was not able to find many people who would recommend the various ebay offerings so I decided to stay away from that. I went with the star shaving english bridle leather. I've been very happy with it and at < $30 I won't be devastated if I do some damage to it.

Thumbs up to star shaving. I got a balsa bench with chromium and a felt with diamond. Puts a wicked good edge on!

If you are a bit of tinkerer there is another option.

I recently bought a 3 in X 50 in leather strap from
Tandy Leather Factory - Natural Cowhide Leather Strap 3" (7.6 cm) x 50"
for 20 bucks to my door. (There is a easy to find 10 dollar coupon that nullifies their shipping + tax.)

I cut a small 8 inch strip and put it on a hard block of wood.
I loaded it with oil and a bit of diamond spray.
I stropped my razors and I can say it strops as well as any strops I've used.
(And I have 42 inches of strops left over!!!)
Just an option for you to consider.

Most of my strops are of the DIY variety. But I own a strop from WhippedDog, several from Star Shaving, and a Premium 1 from SRD. I like and still use them all.