Can you do without the strop?
I hardly ever hone my blades once they're sharp. I do use some of the white paste on the linen side of my strop so the razor is getting a little sharpening each time I do that.
I see many of the old razors on E-bay have a lot of hone wear. More than I would give a razor in 3 or 4 lifetimes. I wonder if any of the users of these blades were just honing every day instead of stropping.
With the Swatty hone I primarily use I think a blade would still last a lifetime with 3 or 4 strokes on the hone every day, but then you might see some hone wear after a few years.
I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and packing a nice old Henkels 7-day set of razors. It rolls up easily and fits well in my Dopp kit, as does a hone. However, a strop is a lot bulkier and harder to pack. I think I will leave the strop and just take the hone. With a 7-day kit it's just one or two hones on each razor, and they will probably thank me for it.
Stropping is one of the fun parts of my shave, so I really don't want to drop it long term. I am curious though as to whether or not some of the old-timers only honed? Any information or thoughts on this?