As some of you know, my trials with a strop were mostly unsuccesful. I kinda agreed with Howard on the minimal needed strokes after a honing, like maybe 3 at the most. Well check this out, awhile back I bought 5lbs of vegi-tanned thin leather scrap. I've been messing around with it on pastes and sprays and powders for my knives. But when I tried a piece raw, the shiny side, it always took my edge away with anything over 3 passes. So, today I got my 2ft. piece of 100% flax linen in the mail, and I'm thinking, well I don't strop so what am I going to do with this thing? Looking at my piece of leather, I glanced over at my bottle of mineral oil and said well maybe if I slightly moisten the leather with some mineral oil it will come to life. Hah! sure as hell, a very light coating of mineral oil on the leather is all it needed, I guess it was too dry or something. Add in the flax linen today and my newly dressed leather piece and I have to say, very very nice. Seems to be what I was missing to be able to make multiple passes on my face without any irritation. So, just a cool revelation I thought I would share!