Originally Posted by
Junkyard
Pastes on leather, in a way, turn a strop into a hone. Improper stropping can help create a concave in the blade and round out the tip on the razor with bad technique, add pastes to the strop and it quickens the damage.
IMHO,there is in no need of strop pastes, I do not know when abrasive pastes were invented, but if they were not needed 200 years ago, they are not needed today. The use of pastes may have been made for those who did not have quality hones, the paste served their purpose well and keep up a quality they were happy with. Heck, a lot of people use strops for their pocket knives and such, and they do not own a razor.