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Just acquired a felt hanging strop - totally new to felt. When I rub my hand downward, the felt is very smooth; when rubbing upward it's quite rough (against the grain). Is this normal? and will the difference adversely impact the blade on alternating sides? It seems counterintuitive that there would be such a difference in each direction. Is it intended to only strop in one direction?
The hard felt strops do have a bit of directional "grain" to them, but I haven't noticed that it affects performance at all. You want to use your strop with very light pressure and let whatever spray treatment you have used do the actual touch up work. I like diamond spray on mine.
+1 on the Diamond spray. That, or the Crox spray excels on the felt. Don't worry about the grain of the felt, Your blade will be fine. Get some diamond spary, .50, two light coats, one each day, let each coat dry overnight, then, once dry, give your blade 10 lapps, Shave, Enjoy.
Thanks for the replies; very helpful. I intended this particular strop to remain paste-free, using the felt as a weekly touch-up in addition to daily stropping on leather.
I got a paddle strop pasted w/ 1m & .5m for "honing" as necessary. If I ever go back to a stone I have a 4k/8k/12k, so I don't think I need anything over 1m on a strop.
I'm pretty ignorant, so I welcome any advice/pointers about this strategy. It seems like there are a lot of "schools of thought" out there.