Angel Eyes - the baddest of the three.
This is a dual-action 3" steerhide strop, with an attached vintage cotton linen component. It's over 29" long, 3" wide, and the realistic stropping area is 19-20". The hide is thick, but it's very supple. The draw is faster than medium, almost fast - but not as speedy as Horween Cordovan. Still - it's faster than velvet-finish horsehide, Bridle, or Latigo.
Linen then leather, as they say in the trade. First we strop on the cloth, which dries and conditions the edge. Then - we follow with some work on the leather to put the finishing touches on the razor's edge. Here - we have a perfectly matched linen component made of 100% cotton that, visibly - strikes a 1950s barbershop chord.\
The steerhide is heavyweight stuff, it's cut from a 9 oz veg tanned hide. the edges are beveled and the burnished. The cotton component is vintage stuff, with dual racing stripes in fire engine red running parallel to the edges. Each end has been fitted with a horsehide bolster, and a nickel-plated d-ring. The top bolster is also horsehide, and the wide-gate swivel hook is nickel-plated steel.
This is an heirloom strop - worthy of inclusion into any den. While some strops out there might possibly have fancier hardware or tooling or whatever - they don't have 1/2 the mojo this one does. When you touch it, you'll know what I mean. While handling this strop during the photo session, I was thinking, "wow, this is lush - whoever gets this one is gonna be reallllly happy".
About the materials.
This is a natural leather strop - the hide it was cut from was exceedingly high-quality, but that doesn't mean the animal lived in a vacuum. There are some underlying marks/scars and some variation in the coloring. These character traits add to the uniqueness of each strop, and they are to be contemplated, understood and enjoyed.
The Cotton component was, obviously, made on a machine but given the age - I'm guessing that there was a lot of human interaction there. It's slightly yellowed from age, but not annoyingly so - there are some nearly invisible marks here/there in the weave, but nothing to be alarmed about. Actually - you have to really look for them to see anything.
Like all of my strops - most of the components are sourced here in the USA, and I fabricate and assemble them here in Brooklyn NYC.
Basic Approximate Specs.
Leather/Cotton Width: 3.0"
Overall length: 29.5" / 75 cm
Total Stropping Area: 22" / 56 cm
Realistic Stropping Area: 20" / 51 cm
