Quote Originally Posted by gregs656 View Post
However, I am disappointed that so many people are adverse to the idea of using something else based on little or no personal experience
No, sir. I never voice an opinion without personal experience. I tried all of these things when I first started (mainly because I was too much of a cheapskate to buy a strop). My palm was not effective because it is too small, and without having learned any stropping technique on a nice flat strop, there was no hope for a noob like I was to strop effectively on an irregular surface like my palm. Maybe you have gotten it to work, but I would never advise a noob to go that route.

Newspaper I found to be quite a bit less aggressive than leather, and hard to keep flat. Again, I would not recommend it to a noob even though some people have made it work. (Plus, if I'm not mistaken, honemeisters who use it, use it as a final finish AFTER the leather, which is consistent with my experience).

I bought an old strop on the Bay for $17 + shipping. IMO this is an infinitely better thing for a noob to do than try any of these substitutes. So there's my opinion. If you still disagree, well, we'll have to agree to disagree.