The other consideration if you want to try pastes but not risk your strops is order an extra piece of secondary material from SRD (.. or whoever you may have purchased from..) then paste and use it on a table top. SRD's price is like $6-$16 depending on which strip you order so not risking much... And, I imagine you could do the same thing with just used denim... Take a torn up pair of jeans, cut enough of the material sans seam to wrap around a 2by4, 1by4, 'whatever' then staple/tack in place and paste on the user side then strop away. If it doesn't come out the way you want you just take it apart and throw away the denim or hand wash and re-use. You can also find balsa fairly readily at Hobby Shops and the same approach would work without being out a bunch of $$$ or messing up your normal gear.