Item Description
Fit & Finish
Overall, this is a very polished product. The leather is smooth, even and free of any irregularities. The hardware is clean looking and the fancy chicago screw is a nice touch. The lettering is perfect and I think offering the initials free of cost adds a very welcome personal touch to the strop. The diamond embossed back is even in depth and consistent. However, it does appear that mine was embossed a degree or 2 askew. The embossing is slightly off center near the bottom. I deducted points here for fit and finish, but with 28" of strop, I don't see it as a functional issue.
Amount of Draw
I can't really rate the amount of draw as I don't think horsehide is intended to have a heavy draw. The strop does have a silky smooth glide as opposed to the velvety draw of latigo. The embossed side is very interesting. It looks like a harder surface than it feels while using it. It certainly provides significantly more resistance than the front side, but less than cotton or linen.
Thickness of Leather
10 can be the only real rating here. The strop is made by bonding 2 pieces back to back, but either piece would be thick on it's own. The two combined provide a very thick and fairly rigid stropping surface. You would really have to try hard to put a lot of "sag" in the strop while using it. I'll let the picture tell the rest of the story.
Efficacy
I don't think horsehide works as fast as Latigo, but it does work. I have really had superb shaves when using this strop. Not to say that any of my other strops didn't provide the same. The backside of this strop is where the difference is more pronounced. I wasn't sold on the diamond embossed horsehide at first, but it has been giving me very similar results as any of my cloth components. A very different feel, but effective.
Overall Value
At $75, it's not a cheap strop. However, you get a top notch handmade strop. It's a whopping 28" long and the back is something that nobody else (to my knowledge) is offering. The free initials add nice personal touch as well. Horsehide may not be for everyone, but this is a very nice piece. I purchased mine with the split leather/hard felt strop as well. I'll leave that out of the picture, as it's a whole different strop.
Overall, this is a very polished product. The leather is smooth, even and free of any irregularities. The hardware is clean looking and the fancy chicago screw is a nice touch. The lettering is perfect and I think offering the initials free of cost adds a very welcome personal touch to the strop. The diamond embossed back is even in depth and consistent. However, it does appear that mine was embossed a degree or 2 askew. The embossing is slightly off center near the bottom. I deducted points here for fit and finish, but with 28" of strop, I don't see it as a functional issue.
Amount of Draw
I can't really rate the amount of draw as I don't think horsehide is intended to have a heavy draw. The strop does have a silky smooth glide as opposed to the velvety draw of latigo. The embossed side is very interesting. It looks like a harder surface than it feels while using it. It certainly provides significantly more resistance than the front side, but less than cotton or linen.
Thickness of Leather
10 can be the only real rating here. The strop is made by bonding 2 pieces back to back, but either piece would be thick on it's own. The two combined provide a very thick and fairly rigid stropping surface. You would really have to try hard to put a lot of "sag" in the strop while using it. I'll let the picture tell the rest of the story.
Efficacy
I don't think horsehide works as fast as Latigo, but it does work. I have really had superb shaves when using this strop. Not to say that any of my other strops didn't provide the same. The backside of this strop is where the difference is more pronounced. I wasn't sold on the diamond embossed horsehide at first, but it has been giving me very similar results as any of my cloth components. A very different feel, but effective.
Overall Value
At $75, it's not a cheap strop. However, you get a top notch handmade strop. It's a whopping 28" long and the back is something that nobody else (to my knowledge) is offering. The free initials add nice personal touch as well. Horsehide may not be for everyone, but this is a very nice piece. I purchased mine with the split leather/hard felt strop as well. I'll leave that out of the picture, as it's a whole different strop.
