So this afternoon I just did my second straight razor shave. That part went okay, a couple of tiny nicks on my face, but no big deal.

But stropping is turning out to be way harder than I anticipated. I have a SRD strop, and having stropped twice now I am in need of a new leather piece. I have nicked it at least a half a dozen times.

I really have a problem keeping my hand steady when flipping the razor over, and I end up moving it the wrong way when I fist place the razor against the strop.

I also have a very inconsistent stroke, which isn't terribly surprising I guess, since I've been doing it for all of 48 hours, but it is frustrating.

I've read the wiki and watched all the stropping videos I could find, but it looks like I am going to have a pretty long learning curve on this one.

How many strops did you guys go through while learning to do it proficiently?