I bought an Illinois 827 Russian strop a couple of days ago, and was hoping forum members could advise me whether or not the strop need any prep work. I have been using strop, and prep it by just rubbing my palm on the stop as advised in the wiki.

One thing that I did notice is the strop leather has a grain, and when I strop against the grain little leather pieces stick up, is this normal? Should I sand away these pieces of leather?

Also is the linen side any good? What I normally do is 10 linen passes, and then 50 leather passes. What have people found to work best for them(carbon steel blades)?

Thanks