A week or two ago, an ebay seller from Washington state had a few vintage strops for sale. Most seemed in okay condition, with one being in better condition and fetching a higher price. I noticed that one of the "okay" ones was marked "seal" and that caught my interest. The photos were not the greatest, and showed some patchy worn areas, but overall the strop seemed in okay shape and not nicked up. So I put out a bid for it. To my surprise, I won it for $8.50.
It arrived around three days ago, and I have since coated the backside and then the front side with a coating of thick lather, Stirling tea-tree shaving soap in this instance, letting each coat dry out before brushing the lather off with my hand followed a mild rinsing of the surfaces with a dampened sponge. Once fully dry, I burnished both sides with my palm to even out any standing oils and then burnished the working area of the front side with a dedicated steel rod. In the end, the strop seemed to have seen heavy use, but was in surprisingly good shape, so I decided to leave things as they were. After shaving yesterday, I stropped the razor on the backside for around 12 laps. Here the surface feel was not unlike canvas, with some draw. Then I stropped on the front side for around 40-50 laps. Feel here was unlike anything I had felt before. Light draw, almost a smooth cardboard feel. The hide seemed tougher than anything I've tried before, and yet the strop was slightly pliant and not overly stiff. Gonna have to play with this one for a while...
Attached below are some shots of the front side followed by the backside. On the front, it says "finish on this side," and on the back it says, "sharpen on this side" followed by something effaced ". . . strokes." I suppose this referred to a lap count. Also, on the front side, below the image of a seal, there is an effaced line which apparently says, "Price . . . ," and then perhaps some dollar amount.
Anyway, thought I'd share this as I didn't come up with much about "seal" strops in searching here or elsewhere. Is it really from a seal or is it just another hyped-up item from "back in the day," I don't know.
It arrived around three days ago, and I have since coated the backside and then the front side with a coating of thick lather, Stirling tea-tree shaving soap in this instance, letting each coat dry out before brushing the lather off with my hand followed a mild rinsing of the surfaces with a dampened sponge. Once fully dry, I burnished both sides with my palm to even out any standing oils and then burnished the working area of the front side with a dedicated steel rod. In the end, the strop seemed to have seen heavy use, but was in surprisingly good shape, so I decided to leave things as they were. After shaving yesterday, I stropped the razor on the backside for around 12 laps. Here the surface feel was not unlike canvas, with some draw. Then I stropped on the front side for around 40-50 laps. Feel here was unlike anything I had felt before. Light draw, almost a smooth cardboard feel. The hide seemed tougher than anything I've tried before, and yet the strop was slightly pliant and not overly stiff. Gonna have to play with this one for a while...
Attached below are some shots of the front side followed by the backside. On the front, it says "finish on this side," and on the back it says, "sharpen on this side" followed by something effaced ". . . strokes." I suppose this referred to a lap count. Also, on the front side, below the image of a seal, there is an effaced line which apparently says, "Price . . . ," and then perhaps some dollar amount.
Anyway, thought I'd share this as I didn't come up with much about "seal" strops in searching here or elsewhere. Is it really from a seal or is it just another hyped-up item from "back in the day," I don't know.
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