45 degrees, mmmm, no I don't think so. I think I mean 90. Let me describe. I lay the blade flat (ofcourse) on the strop and place it perfectly perpendicular to the strop. I found when I was stropping that occasionally one side would start drawing and the other wouldn't. Then I noticed that on the return stroke the blade was getting tilted off from perpendicular so my stropping action would be pushing the edge sideways instead of outward. So I'm using an X pattern and moving the blade perpendicular along the length of the strop without tilting it. I've heard some guys have luck tilting the blade instead of using the x pattern but thats not working AS WELL for me. Imagine the stroke of the blade going STRAIGHT down the strop with the edge perfectly perpendicular to the length of the strop.