What's up with this Illinois No. 70

Hey folks,

Just picked up a used, but like new, Illinois No. 70 strop at a local flea market and I'm wondering about the linen section. It looks like there's a strip of linen, but the strip is very stiff and appears to be covered or permeated by a sort of hard plastic coating. Is this normal?

Thanks much,
Joe

Pics would help.

(But no, that doesn't sound normal.)

Yes, it is normal. That is how vintage linen was often done, impregnated with a slightly abrasive compound. It works very well.

If it is like mine, Yes it is rather unique and has a place around here in my routine, mostly like it when i come off the hones to tame things down? before moving up the stropping chain.

Ian

Yep, it looks just like the linen in WBK's photo. So, should I not be using this as a standard part of the daily stropping if it has an abrasive on it?

Yes, use it as a daily linen. It is not that abrasive

Very cool. Thanks very much for your help, guys!

That is pretty typical, especially for Illinois (Fromm) branded strops. Even the new ones seem to have a hard, almost plastic like coating on them.

Tony