Alan, thank you so much for this post!! It prompted me to really put aside the paddle strop and practice on the horsehide hanging strop I have.

Today, I had the most comfortable shave with the sharpest razor I've had to date after 8 months of daily shaving with a straight.

60 laps on the horsehide for a Dubl Duck Dwarf given to me for free from a local older barber. I knew it was sharp because 1) I didn't hone it , he had years ago. 2) After stropping, for the first time ever, I've now had a razor that easily lopped one of my very fine blond hairs in half on an HHT (previous to this I've ALWAYS had to use my wife's hair for HHTs, even with shaving sharp razors, my own hair simply never would do it). Virtually no resistance anywhere on my face when shaving this morning. I was able to use the lightest touch when shaving. Truly a pleasure (also the first time I've used a spike point and....no probs).

One thing that really helped me in eliminating nicking my strop: I printed off the page in the archives from the barber manual and deciphered the hand written notes from the student's book. He had written something about the razor should remain in contact with the strop at all times during stropping. I do this now and...no more nicking.

Very cool. Thanks again. Man alive is that DD Dwarf sharp!

Chris L