I'm a newbie, and I have one of those Rup $20 strops (2"). The strop is tied to a towel rack, so I'm stropping up from my waist. When I get to the top of the stroke I've noticed the strop is cupped in such a fashion that the heel and toe of the blade are touching the strop, but the center of the blade is not.

Do I need to keep my strokes more in the middle of the strop -- shorten the stroke? Or, should I get a wider strop? More pressure? Paddle strop? While I like the idea of a wider strop, I don't want to nick it up as a newbie. However, so far so good and only one nick on the strop.

Any ideas?