In this thread: http://straightrazorpalace.com/begin...-progress.html, Birnando said:

Quote Originally Posted by Birnando View Post
I fully understand the advice given on this site about little to none pressure and all that, I have been giving it myself... The thing is, there is, in my stropping, a slight bit of pressure... It's hard to explain, in text, what the proper correlation between tautness and pressure should be.
I wonder if the following would be useful:

"Place a finger on the back of your open hand, on the pad of flesh between your thumb and first finger. Press gently until you've formed a slight depression in the pad of flesh. That is how much pressure should be applied to your razor when stopping."

For me, this seems to be the ideal. If those of you who have been stropping for years agree, maybe we could adopt this as a good way to explain to newcomers- who don't have the benefit of seeing it done first-hand- how much pressure to use?