I now own a vintage strop I received from my neighbor. It's one he inherited from his grandfather back in the mid 1970's. Since he doesn't use it, he thought I could. I didn't own a strop before but I do have a vintage Anchor Brand straight razor, although I have never used it for a full shave. The razor has been restored and honed. Any ideas about the age, condition of this strop. It measures 2.5" x 24" total. I have some leather conditioner that I use for my boots. Is that ok for the strop?
I came across a Vintage Strop at an Estate Sale a few months back. It is an original Bresduck from the 1940s. The one you have is what Bresduck became in the 1950s, or Peralduck. These are double Strops, with one Leather Strop and one pure Linen Strop. As I understand it, the Linen Strop was used to clean the blade and the Leather Strop to Hone the blade.
My guess it’s from the 20’s. I restored a vintage strop by washing and bleaching the linen. It came out very nice. The leather portion; I rubbed in a generous amount of tallow shave soap, which is the only use I found for Williams, let that set over night and rubbed off. I finished by rubbing in some neatsfoot oil. This is my daily driver. I especially like the linen. The strop looks to be in very good condition. I caution you, as a somewhat inexperienced straight user, to not cut the strop while learning.
Here’s a couple of old pics of the process that I dig out. I lost the before pics, but you can see by the color of the lather the crud that came out.
You can clean the linen with oxi-clean and water with a brush. Careful or the logo will scrub right off. Clean the oil with water first, let dry for 24 hours, then put a few drops of oil on your hand to rub in. Go very slowly with adding oil, and give lots of time to absorb and wick into the leather.
