Quote Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider View Post
I'm new to this (5 weeks) but I'd agree with the comments about how taught the strop is; I hold mine MUCH more taught than that, mine hardly curves at all. It's hard to tell how much pressure you're using, but I use VERY little pressure, I also go quite a bit slower. I find that I need to force myself to concentrate. I do 30 linen, 70 leather, and sometimes find my mind wanders a bit. It's a bit like meditation, making sure you concentrate on ONLY the stropping; keeping the strop taught, keeping the blade perpendicular to the edge (I don't use an x pattern; my strop is narrow so I do an end at a time (toe end in contact, flip, toe end in contact, flip, heel end in contact, flip, heel end in contact, flip, etc) and keeping the pressure light..
Hope this helps.
I recall seeing in one of the stropping videos where you run your palm or heel of your hand up and down the leather to warm it a bit to condition the leather before stropping the razor.