Eaaaaaasy Slash!!! I fully knew (due to your amazing videos and posts!) that it's sacrilege to put paste in a strop if you care about them. I have two balsa strops but keeping them flat is a bit of a challenge so I figured I'd give this one a try. Believe me, it's absolutely bad bad bad
Just curious but what is the best ideal loupe magnification for inspecting the edge. I have just been getting by using an old magnifier glass. The bay has so many listed from 10x to 30,40,60 and some all the way to 200
10x is fine for a loupe. You want a reasonably wide angle view most of the time. For a USB microscope 100x or 200x works nicely. That's what you use to really zero in on an edge and take pics for archiving or sharing. But just as important as magnification, is a nice bright light source. It's all about the reflections.
I’m using a 7x B&L Hastings triplet most of the time. It’s a good balance vs the shorter focal distance and narrower FOV of the 10x. And @Slash McCoy is absolutely correct about a good light source and reflections.