Thread: Strop question

Just my opinion, Your new, Don't mess around with granite and newspaper and a brand new blade, Your gonna wide up damaging it, then you'll have to send it out for repair.
A strop is no more than a piece of leather. Taping paper to wood, or glass or granite, is getting close to honing....If you absolutey cannot wait, You can use an old leather belt. It's basically the same thing. Hold it taught. Put the buckle on a hook or something waist high, Hold the end between your two fingers, and do the x stroke...Constant use of Crox on any medium will result in a rounded edge...That's only for once in a while not daily stropping...

Here's a couple of links that go into newspaper stropping in more depth. mparker762 has some interesting posts in both links. He and I are both rather biased towards using newspaper though. I don't think you will damage an edge on newspaper any quicker than you will on leather.

http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...newspaper.html

barber hone touch up? - Badger & Blade

It's excess pressure that will damage the edge more than the medium. A newb can destroy an edge on leather very quickly but on the other foot, paper on granite is less forgiving than leather.
Whatever you use to strop try to be Zen like & aim at achieving nothing at first. You can always strop some more if needed but if you've gone too hard at it, a re-hone may be necessary.

Thanks everyone for your input. I have decided to try and wait for the strop, as long as it shows up monday I think i'll make it. Could I make a strop out of old levi's to practice on until the Filly shows up? Would it still be easy to mess up the edge when stroking on cotton cloth or would it be a little harder to do?