It is easy to overstrop with a pasted strop. You have to be very careful and use light pressure with very few strokes.

With a plain leather hanging strop, it is hard to over-strop. I have stropped hundreds of times on razors and they kept getting better.

However, you can DEFINITELY ruin the edge stropping. If you lift the spine while stropping, you will roll the edge and the razor won't shave anymore.

If you use excessive pressure on the strop, you can easily break off the cutting edge or roll it, and it will no longer shave.

These are the more likely scenarios with a plain leather strop.

If you are stropping correctly but are just worried about over-stropping, strop your razor about 25 times and then try shaving with it. You can do this repeatedly and as long as it keeps improving your shave, no problem. When you stop seeing a difference, stop stropping until the next shave.

If you don't know how to strop, then the advice is simple: DON'T LIFT THE SPINE WHILE STROPPING and use low pressure, just the weight of the razor.

If your razor has stopped shaving you, it probably needs to be re-honed.


Hope this helps!