Discussion thread HERE







Aesthetics:

As stated, this is a beautiful strop to look at. I particularly enjoy how the design of this strop breaks away from the traditional barber's edge (no handle at all), or dee ring (if one was lucky) strops of yesteryear, yet it still looks like it could be at home in any bathroom or barber shop either today or 100 years ago. I still feel like it could use a bit of tweaking, though, to make it look even more original (although I did not take off any points for what boils down to my personal opinion).



Fit and Finish:

The strop would have gotten a 10 for this category were it not for two problems that have plagued me from the beginning:



-The screws that hold the pieces together, while gorgeous, do not have an aggressive enough thread to keep them from rattling apart after a month's worth of stropping. About once a month I have to crawl around on the bathroom floor and look for the screw that holds the two leather halves of the Latigo component's handle, and re attach said screw. -1 point



-The leather piece that wraps around the swivel hanging hardware is not punched completely symmetrically. As a result, the webbing component always hangs about a quarter of an inch sideways. It's not a huge deal, but it takes away from what is an otherwise flawless product, so I have to talk a point off here.



THE LEATHER :

Hot dang, this strop has some really really nice Latigo. It's got plenty of draw and it can whip a blade in to shape in no time.



I can also attest that the leather is extremely durable. I did some ah, we'll call them --experiments, to see if I could reduce the draw (just because I wanted to try a lighter draw). The strop went through a lot of abuse and remained intact. It wasn't designed for this, yet it stood the test.



So the leather gets a 10 for draw and a 10 for efficacy



The Webbing:

The trouble with this strop is the webbing that's on it. Not only did it come creased (which took a lot of work to flatten out), it just doesn't seem to work.



At first the webbing feels like it's working, albeit strangely. It's kind of like stropping on a seat belt, but you get used to it . You can certainly hear the satisfying VRRRRAAP of steel on canvas, and you come away from the experience satisfied that it has done it's job. The trouble is if you compare it to real canvas, you can tell right away that it did not do it's job.



Canvas pasted with white rouge will have some cutting action, and it is great for daily edge maintenance. Nylon webbing pasted with white rouge has very little cutting action, and the rouge needs to be frequently re applied as it does not seem to want to "stick" to the nylon, which may be related to the fact that nylon is not very porous.



The pretty much non existent canvas REALLY detracts from the leather, so unfortunately I have to say that draw and efficacy are not the perfect 10 they should have been, because this strop is clearly sold as a "kit."



If you are considering this product, save yourself and buy one without the "canvas." You will be much happier...

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My name is Chris but you can call me "subtle as a train wreck."

I really like this strop. I put some conditioner on it and since then it creates quite the draw which I like. Fabulous leather and great results. I have to agree with the above reviewer that the canvas/seatbelt is just that. Its no different than a canvas belt. I don't use pastes so I just do 25 canvas and 50 on the leather. I recently got a Ambrose DeOro and didn't care for it at all. Very hard, no draw, dry and way to slick for me. It made me appreciate this one that much more. I think if I had to buy this again I would have gotten the 3". For $44 bones for the 2" is a tremendous value.