I found washing the linen a couple of times softens it and makes it useable. Before I did that I hated it!
I thought my Kanayama was too old and ill to make strops anymore? I know JimR at Eastern smooth stopped getting strops because the quality had slipped. What's changed?
That aside I have a 55000 and a 90000 both great strops. I like others hate the linen and am thinking of trying to get Torolf at scrupleworks to fit his linen to my kanayama as that is the best secondary element to a strop I have ever felt........on that subject if you need a new strop you could do a lot worse than Torolfs strops. The 2.5" veg tanned horsehide is a thing of beauty.........
Mr Naomi will probably be making strops for about 2 more years then he'll retire.
As of last year - there was no one to take over his business.
I think the 3000 is pretty good......Not it to fuel the AD, but nothing I have has the same feel as my Kanayama. What's even more intriguing is Mr. Kanoyama hand works each one from scratch. So it is truly made from a leather custom made purely for stropping razors on. Every one should have one in the stable IMO.
My No. 3 has a very light draw that is just a pleasure to feel the razor go back and forth on. The leather is just soooo nice to rub. I find I like using it with hollow-er razors; others have noticed the same for them.
Your description sounds like the feedback I get from my kangaroo strop, buttery smooth.
You may be right on the width- that is why I mentioned the world seems to have determined that 2 1/2" is the 'right' size. Same exact thing with the barber's end on the strop- I would normally put a handle or D ring on it but am going to try to get used to it because it seems the entire rest of the world uses them (shell strops) this way.
Brian
just reading through some older posts.. there are some kanayamas with handles from the "factory". probably were a special order but they are floating around..