Quote Originally Posted by xuz View Post
Who's recommending 100 (per side?) on a strop?
I strop mostly on a hard-backed strops and 15 per side is about all I need. (5 on diamond, 5 on chrome, 5 on plain leather.)
I only strop before shaving and when I'm in a hurry I'll just do 5 on the leather with no problem.
well 20/50 linen/leather is a great before the shave routine. Using pasted strops before every shave is not really the best of practices and stropping after a shave I've never been convinced it is needed or even worthwhile doing if you dry your razor on a towel or tissue.
If your blades are new or recently restored then you can start off just learning how to touch up with say just one stone and slowly build into a honing arsenal, but some want it all now so let them. the learning curve for the impatient is longer than that of the patient man.
and if a new guy buy $6k in fancy unneeded stones and razors and decides that they are too difficult to master we might lose a member and there will be a bunch of discounted hones for sale or he could put them all aside learn to use a finisher and acquire patience and be all the better for it.