I appreciate your post, Randydance. I read in a couple of places that stropping needs to be quick -- round trip in no longer than a second. Since I have only been at this 3 months and consider myself pretty new, I am still taking it slow -- maybe 2-3 seconds. Glad to hear that slower is OK.

I am focused on training muscle memory, keeping the spine on the strop, maintaining a taut strop (too taut, I worry) with the edge trailing in contact all the way. I'm putting a bit more pressure on the spine and on the edge. So far, so good. Paranoid about ruining an edge. I have an old time barber friend who is returning to health and when he is up and about I'm hoping to get more tips from him. I started with an Illinois 361, then a 3" latigo but have pretty much been working on a 3" SRD Premium recently. I accept that stropping is a crucial part of this endeavor but the experiment with getting it right is taking awhile. Worthwhile, I hope.