Thread: Old Strop Questioin

Hi All!

When I first joined in the straight razor art I bought an old strop from a barber for $15, the leather is about 3/16” thick and says;

EAGLE
RUSSIA
USA
542

The linen is apparently 2 pieces that were somehow sewn together and then turned inside out. There isn’t a handle on the end opposite the swivel end so you can look inside.

The linen is quite firm, I wouldn't call it stiff. It was like that before I scrubbed it up and it did come out feeling just the same.


I was wondering if anyone else had seen or has a linen strop like that.

I’d post pictures but it’s out on loan and due to circumstances the guy is having trouble being able to return it! It’s a long story! I have full trust in him!

Thanks for any help guys!

I have a red imp strop which came with a linen. It's two pieces sewn together with a stiffener in between. I suspect the higher quality strops cane that way while the lesser ones were one piece with chalk to stiffen it out. All I do know is it's the best linen I've ever used, nice and coarse and beefy with the right amount of stiffness to it.

My take is that the linen came from where it was most affordable. Narrow fabrics have always been available, but it takes a specialist loom and a minimum quantity of long yarn to set the loom up, whereas good linen has always been available in large amounts - tablecloths, bedsheets, etc. If you could not afford to commission a run from a narrow loom (the smallest seem to make 500 linear meters at a go, some much more) it would make more sense to use the wider linen, cut it into strips, and sew it together.

That leaves a problem with the join. It couldn't go at the front for obvious reasons, it would look bad on one side, so it had to go at the back. However, stropping pressure would make the presence of the join or seam apparent, so it had to be disguised. Hence the strip in the middle. Not a question of class or superior quality, just necessity.

The only other way around the problem was to go for a tubular weave, and there are plenty of old strops that use tubular canvas and linen. The earliest was perhaps the use of fireman's hose, which when it first made a change from the heavy clout-nailed together leather was plain linen, with no rubberised surface. It was used for many years in this form - it swelled when soaked and so conducted water rather well, and strop-makers were quick to use it.

Even today the linen that is produced on a narrow loom costs approx. 5 to 10 times more than that available in broadsheets. What with man-made fabrics supplanting narrow woven linen, the cost spirals ever upwards. One german supplier I talked to wanted me to take 1500 meters of narrow woven linen - and pay up front - before he even strung up the loom. That's an awful lot of strops! For the same sort of outlay I could supply an army barracks with linen sheets.

Purpose-made tubular weave or narrow woven fabric was the quality option - sewing bits together was the cheap way of doing things.

Regards,
Neil

Neil!

I thank you for the input!!! While I don't have the strop in hand, the look and feel does remind me of when I've been able to touch an older fire hose!

I do hope I can sleep tonight without wondering about finding some old fire hose! What makes it worse is I know a recently retired Fire Chief!!