I've read here that the proper way to strop is to do an X-stroke similar to honing. But I do something different that in my mind should achieve the same result, but I want to get some other opinions.
What I do is start out with the full length of the blade on the strop and do 5-10 straight strokes. Then I "walk" the heel off the strop with each stroke, so that after 10-15 more strokes I'm stropping with the heel an inch or so off the edge and the toe is somewhere around the middle of the strop width. Then I slowly walk the blade back to its original full length starting position and finish with 5-10 straight strokes. For some of the full blade length strokes I might roll the tip up a bit to make sure I'm hitting the heel, depending on the razor.
To me this should achieve the same result as x-strokes, which is to make sure that the full length heel-to-toe is being stropped. I find that I can strop a lot faster this way than doing x-strokes. Does anyone else strop like this? Am I looking at this the right way, or should I just bite the bullet and use x-strokes?
What I do is start out with the full length of the blade on the strop and do 5-10 straight strokes. Then I "walk" the heel off the strop with each stroke, so that after 10-15 more strokes I'm stropping with the heel an inch or so off the edge and the toe is somewhere around the middle of the strop width. Then I slowly walk the blade back to its original full length starting position and finish with 5-10 straight strokes. For some of the full blade length strokes I might roll the tip up a bit to make sure I'm hitting the heel, depending on the razor.
To me this should achieve the same result as x-strokes, which is to make sure that the full length heel-to-toe is being stropped. I find that I can strop a lot faster this way than doing x-strokes. Does anyone else strop like this? Am I looking at this the right way, or should I just bite the bullet and use x-strokes?