Specs? mmmm, I suppose you guys may laugh a little. I went to a hobby shop and bought a thin (about 2mm thick) piece of balsa wood. The wood was about 3 feet long. I read about this on the old straight razor place about 1 year ago. I broke (literally didn't even cut them) the piece up into 3 and put .5 paste on one piece, 3 mic on another, and 6 mic on the last as a way to avoid buying 4 strops (I'm cheap sometimes). The ones with green and red paste have done well too but the .5 has really been the champ when it came to improving a edge. The balsa wood seems to have very little drag, I thought for a long time it had no effect. It turned deep black, despite the white gray paste quickly. I have reapplied paste once and let dry just last week. I assume the black was steel residue but don't know. I typically strop 20 to 40 laps check the microscope and re strop (on balsa only) if I don't see marked perfection on the blade. Usually the lower half of the blade isn't so great (I use the x pattern). I USED to go to the leather after word, maybe linen to clean the edge, and used, seemed to reapply a slight cross pattern.

Tony, I would think a strop with balsa on one side and leather on the other would be the worlds top strop right now...not sure which I would use last now though...:-)

I don't know if its important but recently the thinness of the balsa wood is allowing it to bend just like a leather strop might slightly. I think though I have been getting good shaves with it either way, for a long time and then blowing it with my leather strop.

I should clarify the no prep statement. I typically shower first and then use hot water and oil and lather, wait a little bit and then shave. 15 to 20 minutes prep, you guys are always suggesting good prep... This works great with a DE and a straight. With a DE I can shave with much less effort. Last night I just splashed on a little water and applied some lather (soap, rare for me a cream guy). Shaved immediately just to check the edge. It shaved like I've never seen a straight shave before. Almost effortless.

It could be poor stropping work on my part, that is always the case. But I think one of you guys should try this anyway. In the mean time my shave last night was so close I don't need to shave today. Last night I removed all the yellow paste I could on my strop. I may have to go out and buy a new one soon. It is a Jemico "Russian" btw. I believe my technique is correct though but have no way to confirm. I strop lightly, very lightly (and have tried all kinds of pressure over the last year or so). But now that I realize the leather is not improving the edge I can see why the lightest possible stropping is needed. I do not though know how I will maintain this edge, certainly I can't strop on .5 every day. Im going to try plain balsa for a while and try my cleaned strop on one of my razors after I shave with it. I only own 3 super sharp razors now, but with some honing I'll have a 4th for the experiments.

One likely possibility is that the strop is inpregnated with .5 paste and the balsa wood has somehow absorbed the paste and I'm getting a better stropping action on the balsa wood then I would the leather. Either way, perhaps two thumbs up for balsa wood stropping.

Tonight, I'll clean the strop again, and see if I can strop one and atleast maintain the edge. I'll use Tonys paddle strop tonight. His always seemed to perform better than the Jemico anyway.