Hi, I have a Dovo extra wide Russian strop for my "main" strop (canvas on one side, leather the other), and I just purchased a four sided Thiers- issard strop. I am looking for some ideas on how I should set these up with pastes.

I have a Livi 6/8, a dovo 5/8 "singing", a feather club and another one, but the first two are the main Straights I use. I am trying to figure out the best "common sense" approach I should take to setting up my strops to be able to cover any stropping/light honing scenario that may occur. I have not treated my Russion strop with any paste at all yet, however I do have pretty much all the strop pastes. Some people say to treat a strop with paste right away, some say to wait until it has degraded a bit. So first, I would like to hear opinions on that.

For the four sided strop, I could pretty much "designate" each side to a different type of paste. I recently purchased .25 micron diamond paste. If I can designate each side with something, then I may be able to keep the blades in very good shape for a long time without having to hone them except rarely. So I would like to hear some ideas of how I should prepare or treat the sides of the strop for use in different situations.

Thanks in advance!