As I'm sure it's a normal for a new-to-straight-razor-shaving guy to nick his leather hanging strop I pose this question; is it possible to harm the razor with a slight nick in the leather? Mine is a 2" red Latigo hanging strop and despite slow even strokes before my first few shaves with little pressure and never rolling on the edge, I managed to nick the leather on the edge near where I start a lap. At first the one or two nicks didn't seem so severe so I made extra special care to not to repeat the mistake to avoid making more or make the ones already there worse. However, last week after stropping my 5/8 Dovo 40 laps on the canvas strop I started in on the leather, again, being very careful, but I noticed a streak on the leather following the path the razor, almost like the razor was scraping the surface. Confused, I looked at the edge and sure enough, little pieces of leather just hangin out where they shouldn't. "Okay," I thought, "it appears I've nicked my brand new razor and/or rolled the edge." Wasn't sure how, but chalked it up to my less-than-novice skills. A couple days later I take a look at the leather strop again and it occurred to me that the nicks on the blade and those on the leather matched up; where I finish a lap.

Unfortunately I cannot load pictures as a reference as I've only my dinosaur flip-phone with POS camera.

So have I possibly ruined a strop that will forever pose a threat to any razor* I may use on it? Should I just abandon the strop I have in favor of a new one or can it be saved? I'm considering going to either a paddle or a loom to avoid rolling the edge as is, but that would be down the road when finances are better. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


*Regardless of strop issues, I'll be getting the razor re-honed next week.