Three or four times per year, a good friend and I get together to show each other our new gear, hone a bit, and catch up on what's happening in each other's lives. For our most recent such meeting, he had a special new strop for me to admire...
The Siren Call of earning a living by doing what you love is too strong to resist for many. Therefore, strop making has become a good way for people to create their own little niche in the straight razor scene. Some have done quite well with it, and as a reward, they've earned good reputations and many loyal customers. Straight Razor Designs have risen to the top of the strop makers in my opinion, and with Tony Miller drastically cutting back on his production, they stand pretty much alone. Scrupleworks is a new entrant in the strop market (see Robin's review), and I'm very pleased with strops from both SRD and Torolf.
I'm not really a hone collector like some. Razors don't appeal that much to me either relative to soaps, creams, brushes, etc. Unfortunately, I have a valid (personal) reason for needing more than one quality strop (not for the unconscionable strop progressions that some talk about). As such, I've actually developed a lot of interest in the different strops available for straight razor users. Ambrose has received a lot of positive comments for his strops. Being eager to try one, I was glad when my friend told me he was bringing his newest Kangaroo strop from Ambrose.
It's not my strop, so I didn't pay a dime for it. Therefore, I'm not going to review it. I will share some pictures, though, and I'll offer some initial observations.
Obviously, you can see the attention to detail in the maker's mark and precision stitching in the picture at the top of this entry. The same can be seen in the picture below that shows the other end of the strop.
This interesting little feature (shown below) is included in the $79 pricetag. It is easily felt when stropping, and it caused us to resort to using about eight fewer inches of the stropping surface... The benefit to such a feature is clear...
Cupping? Here are two more pictures:
Like I said, this is not a full review. I didn't take any measurements, or strop much with it for that matter. Therefore, I do not have a sufficient frame of reference for a full review. I can offer my opinion that I'd much rather spend the paltry premium to obtain a SRD Premium IV.
For any beginners reading this, now may be a good time to read about Selecting a Strop
Comments (4)
Wow
Is that what a Whipped Kangaroo looks like?
I'd rather strop on jeans
At the time of writing, the Straight Razor Designs 3" Premium II Leather Strop is available at $76.49. That's less than this thing costs. And we're talking about flawless craftsmanship, proper handles, and good leather. Yes, kangaroo leather is much more difficult to turn into a proper strop, but if you don't have the skills to do it properly, why put such a hapless product in the market?
I would hazard a guess that
I would hazard a guess that kangaroo isn't a suitable leather for stropping in the first place. Kangaroos are active animals be it fighting or running up against barb wire fences and the leather is prone to being scratched. As a result the animal and are well known to often come with imperfections when buying it's leather
Perhaps
Anthony,
There have been several who make kangaroo strops, and they seem to be desireable to a certain segment of the straight razor world. If I'm not mistaken, Robin will be able to let us know in short order if Straight Razor Designs have gotten it right. I'm interested in trying one myself.