More than likely you are going to ruin your first strop. If you bought a nice one, then go on and order a cheaper one to start with.

When I started, I stropped before I shave. At the advice of others here, I started stropping after I shaved and shaves got smoother.

For strop conditioning, I rub it with my hands before I take a shower and about every other month I end up putting a little bit of mink oil on it because it doesn't sound or feel right.

Definitely have the razor professionally honed before using it. The classifieds here have several people that do it.

The canvas strop is used to clean the razor and heat up the blade so that the leather will work better. Without canvas you have to do more strops on the leather to heat the blade up and smooth it out. I prefer using the canvas strop as opposed to just using the leather. Plus the canvas lets me warm up my arm.