After learning to strop on belts I moved up to a narrow paddle strop. None of these were much wider than 1 1/4 inch. Along the way I discovered the results were understropped razors. This is spite of mimicking the stroke count suggested by common wisdom. After increasing counted strokes by at least 30% the razors were much sharper. It goes to common sense if the stroke only covers a portion of the width of the blade it will take more strokes to cover the entire blade. Most of my training strops were short about 12 inches.

Now I have a 3 X 20 inch strop my stroke count is more in line with what others report. I go about 40 to 60 on leather with good results.

There has been no difficulty in changing from X strokes to a straighter stroke.

Preferences for the weight and feel of the strop are moving me to towards a 2 1/2 inch wide 9oz soft tooling leather. So much of this is YMMV. Mine has.