Originally Posted by
JimmyHAD
The treatment is a big thing I think. I had talks with Keith DeGrau of HandAmerican about this. Of course "Russian" was a treatment rather than a hunk of material out of the old Soviet Union. I made a strop from a piece of horse shell that I got through Keith. He gave me some 'secret' treatment that I could do if I had wanted to buy a steam iron but I didn't bother. The strop that I made works.
I think a professionally made strop is probably better. They do some sort of treatment in the surface of the hide for the finished product. TBH , having strops by SRD, Kanayama, HandAmerican, Tony Miller ...... a dozen vintage horse and or shells, I can't see a discernible difference in results. OTOH, some of the aforementioned are favorites and others wall hangers. Maybe this is a subconscious recognition that some are really 'better' than others.