Pictured here is a circa 1937 Stropone razor sharpener. The company’s name, Stropone Inc., is a play on the word strop, or stropper, which was a strip of leather used for sharpening straight ...

As a boy I watched my grandfather sharpen his cut-throat razor on a leather strap. How did this work? • Stropping a blade on a leather strap (or strop), as described, is supposed to smooth out ...