Quote Originally Posted by Ben325e View Post
This is the ugly intersection of theory and practice, floorpizza. A paddle strop, while maintaining a much flatter surface than a hanging strop, also has the drawback of not having any "error absorbtion". It's hard to strop effectively on a paddle strop just as fast as you can on a hanging strop.
The error absorbtion is this: if you slightly tilt your razor to the side with a hanging strop, the strop surface typically leans with the razor, up to a point. That means when going fast, you don't have to worry about maintaining perfect levelness with your razor.
if you are using a paddle and lean the razor a few degrees, you aren't making full contact with the bed of the strop any longer. Instead, you are stropping on the edge of the leather, and that's no good. Kind of the same reason why we bevel the corners of our stones.
That is the exact problem I'm having. I have to concentrate so much on keeping the edge completely flat on the paddle that I just can't get any speed.

Well, shoot... I guess the only thing left to do is print your post, show it to the wife, feign exasperation (*sigh* "Sorry, honey, looks like I have to buy a strop"), and visit Tony's site again.