Vintage Shell Strop Questions

[duke762]

I picked up a Clydesdale Shell strop in fairly good shape. I've resurfaced the front to remove scratches and imperfections. It's shaping up to be my best strop.

What's bothering me is the back side of the strop. It's perfect...immaculate...not even a spot of discoloration. Such a nice piece of shell. Since the back has not been finished, it has the faintest hint of nap to it. You can see it when I rub my hands over it. Ever so slight. I hit it with a razor and it has a heavier draw than the front due to the fact the back hasn't been finished.

Question is can the back side be used for stropping? Can it be finished up some how to make it more usable? It seems so close to being usable.....it almost looks like I could finish it just by rubbing with my thumbs. Can't stand to see a surface this nice go to waste.

 

[Slash McCoy]

You could, but I don't see the point. You have proper finished shell on the other side.

 

[DrStrange]

I picked up a Clydesdale Shell strop in fairly good shape. I've resurfaced the front to remove scratches and imperfections. It's shaping up to be my best strop.

What's bothering me is the back side of the strop. It's perfect...immaculate...not even a spot of discoloration. Such a nice piece of shell. Since the back has not been finished, it has the faintest hint of nap to it. You can see it when I rub my hands over it. Ever so slight. I hit it with a razor and it has a heavier draw than the front due to the fact the back hasn't been finished.

Question is can the back side be used for stropping? Can it be finished up some how to make it more usable? It seems so close to being usable.....it almost looks like I could finish it just by rubbing with my thumbs. Can't stand to see a surface this nice go to waste.

I don't know if shell strops are typically shell all the way through.

They might be, but I can see how they might not be.

 

[Toro Blanco]

Yes you can. Shell is a muscle fiber underneath the horse hide in the hindquarters section of a horse. Horsehide and cowhide have a different top layer than the bottom. Skin on top and suade on the bottom. Horsehide has a thicker top layer than cowhide.

Shell can be thinned down to remove nicks or scatches, if you did the same with horsehide or cowhide you would turn it into plain suade. Good secondary!

 

[duke762]

Due to my miserly ways this will most likely be my only opportunity to use a new shell surface.

 

[SliceOfLife]

You'd be surprised.

I've paid up to $80 for a very mint, well-listed and pictured vintage strop (And seen a few break $100)... but I've scored ones every bit as usable with a poorer quality listing, maybe some scuffs, etc... for under $30. On average I pay probably $40/ for vintage strops with Shell and real linen that are every bit as good as what you'd have to pay $70-120+ to get made today... and in the shape/style I prefer.

I avoid gouges, cracks in the leather, and slices.

And I've actually managed ONE "slice" repair that's almost unnoticable (I've tried several... usually the glue I use dries out the surrounding leather and makes the nick worse... this time I lubricated the leather HEAVILY, let it sit for a week to soak in, and used a gel glue to avoid it wicking into the surrounding leather... then gentle sanding with high grit wet/dry over the repair and it's almost invisible, and 100% unnoticeable under the razor; to be fair it was a fairly minor slice... but still something that would have made me trash the strop in the past) That strop I think I paid about $15 for, expecting I was buying linen and hardware... and the leather turned out salvageable. I've been using it for the past week and it's actually a really nice strop.

Now, it can be messy if you start salvaging really rough ones where you need to sand back past some cuts (honestly not worth it except as a project... effort isn't worth the savings)... but if you keep your eyes open, you'll find some that need no more than a neetsfoot oil application and a wash of the linen for a steal.

This is my latest. Got its linen in the wash and I applied some neetsfoot, but other than that? It's ready to use... less than $30 shipped (from Canada) to my door.

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Now as for your exact question...

In theory, if you "finish" the backside of the shell strop, it should turn out exactly the same as if you just sanded back the front side to roughly the same point. I've never done it myself. I do have a boar hide strop that someone before me did exactly that to (refinished the back side and used it as their surface instead of the front), presumably because they didn't like the texture of the boar skin... and it came out quite similar to shell... so I would think an actual piece of shell treated the same way would work just fine. Of the strops I've owned... generally any that were rough enough on the front to be trash were equally bad on the back. Most people who destroy strops beyond repair with bad stropping (likely with knives, rather than razors I suspect) seem to have flipped the strop and used the back until they destroyed it as well. If the front is repairable, I just repair it and leave the back alone... but that's just me, because, as mentioned, the restoration "project" is part of what I'm after with these... it's not just about saving money.

TLDR here: It should work just fine according to my experience. Keep us updated if you do it.

 

[duke762]

Nice score Slice! I should have a Certifyd Russian shell coming in a couple days. Looks like an easy restore. Scored a Koken shell strop about a year ago and I found I never want to strop on anything else. Then SAD set in....Shell Acquisition Disorder.

Old used razors, used strops and mostly used hones....I end up with a personal relationship with all my equipment.

 

[DrStrange]

Nice score Slice! I should have a Certifyd Russian shell coming in a couple days. Looks like an easy restore. Scored a Koken shell strop about a year ago and I found I never want to strop on anything else. Then SAD set in....Shell Acquisition Disorder.

Old used razors, used strops and mostly used hones....I end up with a personal relationship with all my equipment.

I have three Koken strops, all with fire hose.
One is shell, another is labeled as horse hide
and the third is one or the other. I'm not home at the moment.