Tony Miller, of The Well Shaved Gentleman, has a nice starter strop available for $32. This might suit those looking for a good strop for small money from a reputed strop maker. Its a English Bridle handleless job. Seems to have only 5 available as of today , Monday . With Tony's stuff its best to buy fast as he sells out quickly especially as its the holidays. I've had 2 of Tony's strops and they were nicely made so this one won't dissapoint .
I'm glad to hear Tony is still around. Last time I looked at his site it didn't seem like he was still doing the strop thing.
I believe for a time he was turning his hand on non-shave related projects like leather bound journals, he was working at this with his wife .
I am in the need of a good strop. I have two now, one new POS that I ordered, it was sent to me folded so now it has an edge ruining crease half way down it and the other an antique my mother found at an estate sale. It's quite old and worn, the canvas falls apart and sprays dust everywhere if used. I am seriously considering ordering from TM, just wondering how long it'll take to get to my APO as I'm deploying next week and I don't think he'll be back in the shop in time for me to get it before I go. I may just have to make do with my antique until I get back. ~J. Babcock
TM is pretty quick with shipping , thats my experience. You can email him and he responds rapidly. Explain your situation most likely he can help you out. In dealing with him in past years it was easy to shoot him a question and he would respond via Blackberry in a hour. You can probably salvage the old strop for temporary use. The canvas can just be washed gently in warm water with a little soap, don't wring it out just let it hang dry. You can get the stains out with a spray of fabric/ carpet cleaner and washing in warm water. Only thing that can happen is the end of the canvas can fray a bit when cleaning . Cleaning the leather is easy just buy some Kiwi brand saddle soap from Walmart and give the leather a cleaning with that, they also sell neatsfoot oil I believe, in the shoe section with the saddle soap and thats perfect for conditioning an old strop. Then you can take a beer bottle to roll the leather to smooth it out. Making some tallow soap lather and slathering it on the strop and letting it dry and wiping it off is another method of conditioning the leather , you can do this repeatedly if needed.
Thanks Mr. Hanzo, that is great advice, I will try both and report back with my experience. ~J. Babcock
Hanzo, thanks for those tips! I've restored several strops and depending on how old and dry they are, use the following process. If the leather is clean, I slather on Lexol which is thin and let it soak in to the strop. I do two or three applications and work the leather to get the Lexol into the fibers. I finish off with Fromm's strop dressing which is thicker and smells more like it has sheep fat in it. The Fromm's is a top dressing and I work it in and let it follow the Lexol into the leather. Lexol is available online or at tack shops (horse gear) and I buy it by the quart for all the leather products I care for both for myself and others. I've been using the Lexol for over 30 years and highly recommend it. A shoulder bag I made for my wife 25 years ago is treated with it once a year and has been in daily use for all those years. It has that old leather patina which has to be earned and can't be purchased.
As promised, my report. I took Hanzo's advice and lathered up the leather side of my antique strop twice, letting it dry before wiping it off and Ifor the canvas side, I actually soaked it in soapy water for a bit. It was quite gunked up. Both sides are dry now and working great. The leather is a bit longer than the canvas, I assume the canvas shrunk a bit and when rolling the leather with a bottle, it stretched/smashed/flattened. It was a very simple and inexpensive way to bring some life back to an antique. I'm shaving away, stropping with no worries. Thanks again for the tips.
Tony Miller is still making strops. He usually posts when they are ready on badgerandblade, spur of the moment or you go to his website: http://www.thewellshavedgentleman.com and sign up for one. He makes different sizes, styles, leather types at different times and you just email him and wait in line for them to be made. They can sell within hours of Tony giving notice they are ready. badgerandblade's shopping mall, BST usually has some of used Miller strops and other strops for sell.