Wow, so much great advice. Thanks everyone!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I'm going to give the spinning thing a shot simply because the strops I'm ordering will take a while to get here and I can get some tanned kangaroo skin in a day or two, it's pretty darn cheap stuff. I'm going to buy enough to see if I can make a couple of bench-top strops to use as paste hones while I'm at it. Should be fun.

But while my strops are en route I can practice with a wallet, maybe some newspaper if I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. I'll try that tip with the pencil/paper.