Thread: Certified deep cut diamond Russian back - 323

This is my strop. I've had it for years as a keepsake. I got it from my Uncle who's been gone some 22 years now. He was an excellent knife sharpener but I never saw him using, or working on, any straight razors.

My Uncle was also a trader at heart and I believe he must have picked up the strop as part of his dealings. It hung by the mantle in the kitchen for years. I took it as a remembrance and have held onto it all this time by hanging it in my office.

It has some scratches on the working side of the leather, not cuts, but it did leave the surface with indentations you can feel so I will need to work those out.

I really want to take good care of this strop and have been reading a lot of post to the point I feel I'm probably confusing myself.

Now that I've taken interest in learning to become a proficient straight razor shaver I feel my Uncle would get a kick out of me using his strop as a vital cornerstone to my shaving journey.

I'm a noob to this so I would like to ask two questions to help me see understand more clearly. -

(1) "Is the canvas side used first to align the shave razors edge indentations between shaves and then the leather side used last to finish prepping the razors edge making the razor shave ready?" - Found a great answer here also... http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...leather-2.html Post #11 MARTIN103 and JimmyHAD. Thanks Gentlemen!

(2) "Is it wise to have a second (separate) strop to apply paste too or would it be better just to paste the backside of the original strop that has the diamond embossed pattern?" - Great advice taken from JimmHAD below. Thanks Sir!

I appreciate all feedback and direction.