I'd told myself I'd treat myself to my first straight razor after my first bloodless shave with my shavette: I have finally reached this goal and have selected a razor based on the generous guidance provided here.

After I delibrated what kind of razor I wanted, I figured getting a strop would be easy: ya just need linen and leather, right? NOPE. Hard wool felt, rough leather, diamond sprays, pastes, crayons (CRAYONS!)... I am completely overwhelmed by all of this, so this post is me throwing up my hands and again begging for advice.

OF COURSE, I AM FULLY AWARE THAT DIFFERENT PEOPLE GET DIFFERENT RESULTS FROM DIFFERENT TOOLS AND DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES AND ULTIMATELY WILL USE WHAT IS BEST FOR THEM. (I've always felt that one of the privileges of being a man is that it can be scientifically proven that one particular item or technique gives the best result but, as a man, you can be a stubborn jackass and do whatever the heck you want, regardless, just because that's the way you want to do it.)

But all this comes down to two questions:

1) What kind of results or specific purpose will the different tools/techniques give? If there's a resource for this, I haven't come across it. I'm thinking about linen, leather, hard wool felt, paste, diamond spray, CRAYONS... (And I'll bet there's more I haven't even mentioned!)

2) I want a paddle strop and have found one with leather on one side and hard wool felt on the other: is that all I need or will the hard wool felt have to be sprayed or pasted? Otherwise, is there a single product I can pick up that gives me everything I need but doesn't need sprays or pastes or crayons?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.