Originally Posted by EdinLA44
Hi filmecyan
Since you have a brand new hanging strop, it shouldn't need anything for awhile. Most good strops are ready to go out of the box and don't need a pumice stone or any treatment with dressing.
From reading your post, it sounds like you might be a bit confused on terms. There is strop dressing that is applied to a strop and is used to help keep the leather itself in good condition. Then there is the paste, which is a mild abrasive applied to a different strop than the one you use on a daily basis to prepare the razor for shaving. This second strop with the abrasive paste is used only periodically to freshen up a razor's edge. For the pasted strop, many folks get a 4-sided paddle strop so you can apply different pastes with varying degrees of abrasiveness. Once you put an abrasive paste on a strop, it gets embedded into the leather and then can only be used for that purpose. That's why you have one strop for daily stropping, and another one (or more) for the pastes.
So for daily shaving, you would strop the razor first with the linen side and then with the leather side. After a couple of weeks or so, when you notice the razor starting to pull when you shave, then that's the time you would get the pasted strop and freshen the edge. I usually get about 10-12 shaves before I have to use the pasted strop, but my beard is on the lighter side, so your experience may differ. I hope that answers your questions.
Ed