I ended up with an 80000, which has a canvas strop, one of suede, and one of cordovan horse leather. The canvas has been treated as suggested by some
Japanese sites, with soap and water washes, rubbing with glass bottles and drying in the sun. It has become soft, and quite the opposite of a canvas strop filled with Dovo white paste. The suede strop has a strong draw, and is perhaps the most impressive member of the trio. Finally, the cordovan is as smooth as glass, and is meant to be used very taut with very little pressure - just a light skimming stroke. Anything beyond this will catch the point of a spike razor and make a divot.
But is it worth it? Straight razor users know, or should know, that a good stropping makes a huge difference in the shave. Do these strops, costing around the price of five new razors, or ten to fifteen eBay specials, justify themselves? Perhaps. You can get the same results from other strops, though the cordovan finish isn't common and, I have to say, probably adds the least to the combined effect of all three. But there is pride in ownership, and the incentive to strop more carefully and thoroughly. I've spent several times the cost of this trio on other strops over the years, and all I've done is to prove, once again, the cheapest thing to do is to buy the best at the outset rather than to get there by buying many lowlier increments.
If you can't ever see yourself splurging on one of these, you can get pretty close by doing this:
1. Buy a Dovo/Jemico Red Russian. Keeping the leather out of the water, wash and abuse the canvas until soft.
2. Use the Red Russian leather side as suede. Never put anything on it at all. No oil, grease, dressing - nothing!
3. For finishing we will need the smoothest and glassiest strop, again with no dressing on it ever. I'm a bit out of touch here, but I daresay someone will chime in with a strop that is finished super smooth and shiny.
Or you can just buy the real thing and be done with it. There isn't an objective way to quantify the effect of the strop, and this will not make a blunt razor shave like magic! Maybe it improves the shave ~5% over my other strops, and maybe that's me fooling myself. Perhaps the pride of ownership is what fools me. I don't regret investing in it, though I am concerned for the fragility of the cordovan surface - it does tend to make you strop very slowly and carefully and with as little pressure as possible. Nothing like that movie - what was it? Lives of a Bengal Lancer? Where someone cuts his strop and then slices the whole thing through in frustration, thus destroying not only the strop but also his razor. No hard and fast stropping here, just light and careful caressing of the cordovan. If you can, try it out. The opportunity will soon be gone as the gentleman who makes them is in his eighties and has no apprentices for the future continuation of the business.