Quick answer is it realigns the edge of the blade on a microscopic level. Its like using a steel on a knife. Honing actually taking metal off the blade, while stropping realigns the metal on the edge. Every time your razor cuts through a hair, that part of the edge gets pushed back a very very very little bit and by the end of a shave, the blade has been pushed so much its out of aligenment. When you strop, it "pushes" the edge of the blade back to the way it was before the last shave. Hope this helps and actually makes some sense!