Westholme strop

My latest strop is a westholme flax linen cordaven with croc handles and tabs. The strop was from alistar in the uk, who goes by the name of westholme strops on face book.

the strop is 3 inch wide and has i prefer stropping surface of 15 inch. I have a Neil Miller flax cordaven that I brought five years ago and it's all ways been my favourite. I wanted to try out alistar s linen and cordaven? It's every bit as good as Neil's . The flax linen that's hard to source now days is identical to Neil's . For us coticule honers I would highly recommend this linen as it works very well and the leather is lush to strop on. Alistar makes a beautiful strop

gary

gary haywood said:

My latest strop is a westholme flax linen cordaven with croc handles and tabs. The strop was from alistar in the uk, who goes by the name of westholme strops on face book.

the strop is 3 inch wide and has i prefer stropping surface of 15 inch. I have a Neil Miller flax cordaven that I brought five years ago and it's all ways been my favourite. I wanted to try out alistar s linen and cordaven? It's every bit as good as Neil's . The flax linen that's hard to source now days is identical to Neil's . For us coticule honers I would highly recommend this linen as it works very well and the leather is lush to strop on. Alistar makes a beautiful strop

gary

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The strop is gorgeous! I still want to add a Horween strop to my collection. Maybe this one or a Scrupleworks.

alpster said:

The strop is gorgeous! I still want to add a Horween strop to my collection. Maybe this one or a Scrupleworks.

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It is indeed a nice-looking strop.

The Scrupleworks Horween strop is oil-tanned. I have one at 2"-wide and it has a medium-draw, velvet suction to it. This is different from, say, a Walkin' Horse Horween shell cordovan, which is rather slick and which you can feel a speck of dust on, sort of like a black hard Arkansas. From the picture, this Westholme strop looks more like the WH Horween shell cordovan. Of Torolf's strops, I prefer the vegetable-tanned horsehide, as it is the slickest (least draw) of what he offers.

Gary, could you describe what the feel and draw is like when stropping on this one?

Beautiful strop Gary. I may contact him about some linen.

Alum of Potash said:

It is indeed a nice-looking strop.

The Scrupleworks Horween strop is oil-tanned. I have one at 2"-wide and it has a medium-draw, velvet suction to it. This is different from, say, a Walkin' Horse Horween shell cordovan, which is rather slick and which you can feel a speck of dust on, sort of like a black hard Arkansas. From the picture, this Westholme strop looks more like the WH Horween shell cordovan. Of Torolf's strops, I prefer the vegetable-tanned horsehide, as it is the slickest (least draw) of what he offers.



Gary, could you describe what the feel and draw is like when stropping on this one?

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hi alum, yes just as you describe it . Give it a good wipe as like you say you can feel the dust. I no after a while this strop will feel even nicer.. The Torolf strops are lovely but I also prefer he veg tanned leather. The oil tanned is nice but the suction is,not for me I prefer the cordaven and kanayama leather.

Dcaddo111 said:

Beautiful strop Gary. I may contact him about some linen.

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Yes he,s very nice to deal with,,I,m sure he would do you a linen strop, I no he only has it in 3 inch wide

Beautiful

alpster said:

The strop is gorgeous! I still want to add a Horween strop to my collection. Maybe this one or a Scrupleworks.

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Just to add to what others have said, Horween makes many types of leather with many different types of tanning processes. My favorite for stropping is the Horween cordovan. Cordovan, like linen, has become an often misused word. People use it to refer to color and shine when it is actually the combination of a tanning process and the very special shells. The Horween company has made it for over a hundred years and much of it used to be used for razor strops. As straight razors faded from the seen this very special leather started to be used for shoes and luxury items to the point that sourcing it for razor strops has become difficult. Like Gary, and maybe because of Gary, I count my Neil Miller Horween cordovan shell and genuine linen as my finest strop. I have others that are excellent, but there is something very special about Horween cordovan. If leather interests you I highly recommend a little time reading the information on Horween's website.

Brianskeet said:

I have others that are excellent, but there is something very special about Horween cordovan. If leather interests you I highly recommend a little time reading the information on Horween's website.

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been to their site

I have been to the site. Mostly about shoes, but very informative. Cordovan isn't hide, its a membrane below the hide on the flanks of the horse and Horween has an almost corner on the market. I have 3 cordovan strops, but not sourced from Horween. I wanted a Neil Miller, but they are no longer available, so I am dreaming of a "Scrupleworks".

I have one of Torolf's Horween leather strops and it is a beauty. I think my grail strop would be if Torolf would source Horween cordovan!

I,m not kidding I most likely gone through the 20 high end strops if not more. Now Neil sadly passed away it's going be impossible to get a Neil Miller cordaven. Westholme so cordaven and linen is identical to my Neil Miller cordaven and linen. The only difference is my Neil Miller is five years old and wel bedded in and still performs still to this day perfectly. There is no Dout it's the best stropping experience out there. I have srd English bridle and the cordaven makes by English bridle feel course there is no comparison. Now the kanayama is also beautiful supple leather . Scrupleworks are gorgeous well made strops. I still prefer the cordaven leathers


smaller 2.5 Neil Miller and larger 3.0 westholme, also my kanayama which I love. These are my favourite strop, spoiled for choice

gary

Gentlemen, all beautiful strops

I recently picked up a TM fast bridal and it's so much better to me than the steer hide I have even though the steer hide is very nice and then I erectly went to linen over cotton by Brian's suggestion and it a big step up over the cotton.

Beautiful strops Gary!

Brianskeet said:

Beautiful strops Gary!

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thank you Brian

Gary, is the middle one pasted or is that just the swarf build up?

No it's just swarf build up. I,ve used it literally all the time , I,ve noticed on the kanayama leather I get a build up of black swarf does your kanayama leather do the same.

i was going to clean it of my linen but i,m sure it works better with the swarf.

the linen side has had some serious use over the last 5/6 years .

That's a nice strop.