Thread: I wish I wouldn't have traded for a microscope :-]

The strop is pulled taut. The tang of the razor, the way I hold it, is between the tip of my fore finger and the tip of my thumb with the middle, ring and little finger supporting the scales. Very important IMO. Snug pins in the pivot of the scales are critical too. Difficult to strop propely with loose scales.

Flip the razor between the fore finger and thumb applying pressure to the spine. Enough pressure so that the spine never comes off of the strop. When the flip becomes coordinated you will be able to better control whatever pressure is applied to the edge with your fore finger and thumb.

Check out this tutorial on honing and stropping from the SRP Wiki here . It is a PDF of an excerpt from a 1961 barber manual. Practice the flip as they suggest if that might be the issue. Hard to tell from what you've described.