Well, I don't get the bun analogy at all, but that's probably because I'm Australian and we get them in bags of a dozen....

I'm going to bite the bullet here and play grasshopper.... The way I see it, striations in the bevel are running from tip toward heel like this from X pattern honing (edge on left, spine on right):

Tip
/
/
/
Heel

Unless I've completely misinterpreted X pattern stropping for the last 2 years (entirely possible, I might add ), if a strop were to impart microscopic marks on the edge, they would look like:

Tip
\
\
\
Heel

So to me it looks like X pattern stropping is an "against the grain" process.

What does this mean? I haven't thought about it enough to know yet (I'm grasshopper, remember).

But here's a thought. Stick your arm out in front of you and make a backhand tennis swing a few times, keeping your upper arm locked. What motion does your hand make through the air? For me it's an arc in pretty much the same pattern as an X pattern stopping technique. Maybe the old-timers simply knew about the natural ergonomics of a stropping motion on a long-ish piece of leather. Combine that with the fact that, as a general rule, old-timers were parsimonious old buggers, and viola! Narrow strops.

Case closed.

Now, I'm hungry. And for some reason I feel like a hot dog...

James.