Thread: Is this a good first strop?

That's a nice strop. Black latigo has quite a bit of draw. As a beginner, you need to be very careful. Many guys nick or cut strops as they learn. It may be worth your while to practice on an old belt first to get the feel of it before you hit the strop.

If you have a Tandy leather nearby. You can pick up leather belting material to use as a practice strop, it's cheap, and it comes as wide as 3 inches.

For everyday stropping, I'd go with the matched webbing. To me, it's negligible. Just like a warm up before you hit the leather.

SRD's Wool Felt is great for sprays, like .50 diamond spary (my personal favorite) and Chromium oxide spray.
You use those as a touch up every once in a while, but not for everyday....

This is a nice strop, I own one myself except for mine had D rings instead of the leather handle. The only reason I wouldn't recommend this strop for beginners is because of the fact that you're probably going to put a few nicks in it, as most people do when they're learning how to use a strop. You might want to start on a cheaper model, but on the other hand, $65.00 is a fair price in my opinion for this strop. (P.S. Mine came with the black linen.)