Just wanted to give a shout out to Ray-man for his excellent balsa/chromium oxide strops, one of which I bought recently and have been using on everything I shave with.

So, you all know the feeling when the razor you're using has lost a little bit of its zing -- maybe it's just pulling a bit on the chin, maybe you're pressing harder than you're used to. Well, Ray's strops are like the "magic zing restorer" for all of your favorite blades. Really, I've got all kinds of fancy stones to use for honing, but for breathing life into a tired edge, nothing at all works like my balsa strop.

I've starting using it for about 10-20 laps on razors that have lost a little edge, followed by normal stropping on cotton and then leather, and holy smokes, it's like the blade has gone back in time to when you first got it honed by Lynn.

Ray's strops are pretty darn cheap, too, when you think of how much everyone blows on fancy Belgian stones and horse hide strops. You might not think that something this affordable would be so effective, but then you'd be wrong.

Anyway, I've been enjoying using the balsa strop so much, I thought I'd mention it here in case there's someone who has not bought one yet (which would be hard to believe). No, Ray is not my brother in law or anything. But he does make a really, really useful item, at least in my opinion.