I went out of character and ordered a store-bought strop a couple of months ago, an unused illinois #226 - looks like horse butt (says genuine horsehide on it). Someone on ebay was selling a couple of them for fair coin with a razor hone (which I didn't need at all).

The linen side of it has a crispy white coarse strap that says "beau brummel scotch silk finish". It's really abrasive, sort of has a sticky coated feel, and I have no idea if it came with the strop or if the seller switched it out.

It's stiff right now, what is it? Is it linen coated with something? Of all of the strops I have, they only have canvas, felt and nylon backs (I don't really like any of those a whole lot).

So what is it and what do I do with it? Flex it and rub it with a glass bottle? It definitely marks up the bevel of a razor in its fresh-new state right now, but to find out how much it dulls a razor, I ran a freshly honed razor over it and then back over a broken horse butt strop I already have, and the edge was still good, despite the fact that the hard linen side completely dulled the bevel on the razor, and the feel itself was pretty harsh.