Thread: 3 steps in maintaining a razor edge???

I come from the wood working/knife end of things as well. I used/use flat strops on all of my carving knives. When I started using a hanging strop with my razor, I nicked the first one up pretty bad, cut one in half because I wasn't paying attention, finally got the hanging strop down on the third one, and then bought a nice one. It's a learning curve to go from flat to hanging. In all of the strop damage I did, the Dovo blade was able to be refreshed using a few swipes on an 8k, about 10 on a 12k, 5 or so on CrOx, then linen and plain leather.
So if you are worried about damaging your blade with a hanging strop, don't worry. You can easily fix the blade.

And if you already know how to hone knives, then your already know 80% of how to hone a razor - the sound and feel of the metal on the hone.

Well, I see nothing wrong in continuing to use a flat strop. I've tried both and found I prefer flat strops. But the big difference for me is that I have taken my hanging strops and made them into hanging flat strops. Cut a piece of pressed wood the width of the strop and 2 to 3 inches shorter than the length and secured it between the leather and the linen (or felt) with Velcro straps top and bottom. The major reason for this is I have a naturally heavy hand in doing things. Using a flat strop makes me keenly aware of the amount of pressure I put on the razor. I have taught myself, through muscle memory, to use a weight of the razor approach only when I strop. The reason for developing the hanging bench strop was because I don't have the room in the bathroom for that much of a flat surface. I have had no problems with maintaining my edges.