Is this old strop any good?

[Magruder]

Just placed my first-ever bid on eBay and won this strop.

Think it's worth $7.44 ($1.99 plus shipping)? Or did I waste my money?

[joel]

Just placed my first-ever bid on eBay and won this strop.

Think it's worth $7.44 ($1.99 plus shipping)? Or did I waste my money?

Any good as in what? As in a collectors item?

If you are asking if it is any good for use, I highly, highly doubt it is....

At least it was inexpensive though.

[mparker762]

It looks pretty tired to me.

[Magruder]

I thought the fact that I was the only bidder was a clue. Oh well.

[BOGARTUS]

The wood paddle is probably OK. Try stripping the old leather off, block sand both sides absolutly flat and glue new leather on. You can get leather from a shoe maker. I even have some to spare.

[Magruder]

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll see how it looks when it arrives.

So do strops wear out? Do they become unusable if the leather is worn down to a certain point?

[mparker762]

No, but the leather is almost certainly dry-rotted. If it isn't cracked you can try rehydrating it with lexol or mink oil or strop conditioner, but it may disintegrate.

[Magruder]

Dry-rotted? I'm curious whether you see that from the picture, or you just know what to expect from an old piece of.... leather.

At this point I am second to no one in my ignorance of strops.

[mparker762]

That's just what happens to old leather. And this is likely *really* old leather.