Thread: Strop type after using tape, paddle or hanging, or it does not matter?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say something controversial. Stropping is overrated. If you shave, you need to strop. I do too. BUT, all of these extensive stopping scenarios is a waste at best and detrimental at worst. A well honed razor has an edge so thin that a few passes is enough to straighten it. Ten is enough, twenty if you are justifying the purchase of the strop. The curve of the strop negates the need for tape. A very light touch and ten to twenty laps is plenty. But if more laps works, go for it.

If you hone with tape then go to paste with tape on. Take tape off and strop linen/leather.

If you strop on a single sheet of 20lb, garden variety copy paper, as in finishing on 1um lapping film, the paper will flex enough, so that only the leading one third of the bevel, will touch the film and convex the edge.

So if a single sheet of paper will flex that much, any leather or balsa strop will flex even more and convex or at least touch the whole bevel.

There is no need to leave tape on the spine to strop on paste.

Euclid, you and some others here could be, ARE strop and Hone Masters, I much enjoy your helping new guys, you must have been a teacher in another life..

Stropping school tutorial would do the trick. /Keep calm and STROP On..

i never use tape when stropping even when i was using tape while honing .
i think leather being a more flexible medium than a stone does not require the angle adjustment that tape gives for that very reasom