[Jimbo]

I recently purchased, for AUD95, a locally made Australian strop with one side impregnated with "Carborundum", which I assume is silicon carbide, but I guess could be anything (the seller didn't know what the manufacturer used). Here's some pics







Having waited a couple of months on back-order, I was quite excited to finally pick it up.

OK. It's a fairly standard design. Two rather hefty pieces of leather, each perhaps 40cm long, a tad under 10cm wide, and a few mm thick. Stitched together at either end with a ring at the top and a nicely padded handle at the bottom. The quality of the workmanship looks quite good to me.

The leather side is nice and smooth with no creases or bumps, very flat, and exhibits a nice feel through the razor in terms of draw.

The carborundum side.....well......It's very thoroughly and evenly painted, and the paint has even been extended onto the sides of that piece of leather. It also appears that the leather has been impregnated to a certain depth by the paint. When new, this side felt a bit grainy and bumpy in places. So I ran an old butter knife over it in a stroppy way to smooth it out.

While the carborundum side feels smoother now, it has become apparent that the grit of the abrasive is nowhere near fine enough to even consider using this side for touch ups on a slightly dulling razor. Let's just say that at this moment in time (half a week after purchase, and probably 1000 strokes with the butter knife) it is more suited to restoration work than to finishing work. On the bright side, my (stainless steel) butter knife no longer has any serrations left along its edge....

Overall, I'm disappointed with this strop. The leather side is nice, no doubt about it. But that wasn't the purpose of purchasing this strop - I was after some type of fine polishing from the carborundum side. What I got was crushed up brick suspended in grey paint slapped over leather. Perhaps I still haven't worked it enough yet, but somehow I don't think so. However, if things improve in the future I'll be sure to post back.

In terms of price, 95AUD is not unusual for locally made Australian strops.

James.

[jaegerhund]

Well it looks nice James---- and the leather side should serve you well.



Justin

[Jimbo]

Yeah Justin, the leather side is very nice. And overall it's a nice strop. I just wish I'd checked more closely with the vendor on the actual grit of the carborundum side. Just took his word that it was finishing grit - probably should know better by now, but I'm a very trusting soul

James.

[thebigspendur]

Carborundum is pretty rough stuff no matter the grit so I'm not surprised to hear your report of its performance. I'm sure down the road you'll find a good use for it though.

[bill strachan]

Hi Jimbo - Thanks for the review. I actually have one of these strops reserved for me in the razor shop. This would be my first strop, would you recommend that I do not purchase this and try to get a leather / linnen one first?

Also do you know of any other places in Brisbane that sell strops?

Thanks in advance,

Bill

[Jimbo]

Originally Posted by bill strachan

Hi Jimbo - Thanks for the review. I actually have one of these strops reserved for me in the razor shop. This would be my first strop, would you recommend that I do not purchase this and try to get a leather / linnen one first?

Also do you know of any other places in Brisbane that sell strops?

Thanks in advance,

Bill

Hi Bill and welcome mate!

The strop itself is good - nothing wrong with it at all. The problem is it didn't meet my expectation - so the issue is maybe more with my expectations than with the strop.

But if I had to recommend a first strop, this one wouldn't be it unfortunately. I'm going to have a chat with the Razor Shop guy about whether he can't suggest maybe getting the maker to replace the "carborundum" with something like chromium oxide in the future (or if not on all new strops, maybe for a 'custom job' or something...). But really, as it is you're paying for a side you can't really use.

The Shaving Shops in Indooroopilly and Garden City (Mount Gravatt) stock "Black Beauty" strops. They are of similar build quality, but have no linen or canvas side. The Black Beauty Junior comes with embossed leather on one side, which may perform a similar role to a linen side (maybe...). The Black Beautys are, IIRC, both over 100AUD (Junior's a bit cheaper than the 'Finish' model). These are the only local strops that I know of in the Brisbane area.

One day I'm going to get a strop or two from Tony Miller. I've been avoiding it until now as I wanted to try local strops first. But unless you're really patriotic (and if you are, that's great!) I think one of Tony's strops would make a great first strop.

In fact, if you decide to order one of Tony's (or the Shaving Shop needs to order in strops or whatever) but want a strop to use while you wait for it to ship, send me a PM - I'll lend you one of mine to use and practice with until yours arrives.

James.

[bill strachan]

Thanks Jimbo - I have pm'd you rather than hijacking your review thread.

Bill

[Ashley]

Originally Posted by bill strachan

Also do you know of any other places in Brisbane that sell strops?

Hi Bill, I'm also a fellow Brisbanite.. I didn't find any strops around for under $100, can't say that I looked too hard. I decided to make one for myself, mainly because I didn't want to waste that much on something that I would probably destroy while learning..

I bought a scrap of thick veg tanned leather from a leather store (about $20) and a few "D" rings and some rivets. Took about an hour to make a basic strop, never having done it before. Also got a nice wide strop (90mm) which for me makes the stropping easier.

Now it took a bit to "break it in" as the leather was quite stiff. But this is just a little work - some other threads around I think on this.

Now this was my first strop so I managed to knick it several times and eventually I did it too badly so I made a second one from the same scrap of leather.

So if you are at all handy, you can make your own. PM me if you want more details.

Cheers,
Ash.