Quote Originally Posted by athair View Post
I'm still fairly new, but with holidays coming up I'm going to be asking for a new strop. Currently I've got a filly and I'm thinking of going for a 3" wide strop so I won't necessarily have to do "x"s anymore. I haven't been nicking up the filly recently (improvement is slow but steady) but I'm a bit worried that a wider strop may be easier to nick for some reason. Any opinions?

There are several "Patterns" the X stroke is just the most popular it is easy to learn and allows the edge to touch equally and evenly across any strop..

To make the assumption the a 3" strop now allows the razor to go straight up and down the strop would be a mistake, to make the assumption that a 3" strop allows you more versatility in which pattern to use would be correct...

Hint: Making a "Flat" wide strop is a bit of a challenge so I would recommend a high quality product if you are going wide, as a cupped/bulged 3" strop creates more issues then it solves..