There are two categories of stropping, stropping on a clean substrate, and stropping on a substrate with compound.

Stropping is done to reduce the width of the edge, and to help remove and align any burrs along the edge.
# Clean Stropping
Stropping on a clean substrate achieves 4 things:
1. It realigns the edge
2. It burnishes the metal (moves it without destroying it), making the edge smoother
3. Abrasion - It makes scratches less defined and smooths out the blade
4. Removes coating - Some blades come with a manufacturer applied oil, you can use a strop to remove this coating

# Loaded Stropping
With a loaded strop, abrasive compound is applied to the strop to increase the rate of abrasion. This compound is applied with the goal of reducing the width of the edge without the formation of a foil-edge burr. Loaded stropping tends to produce a micro-convex edge, meaning it's shaped a little bit like a teardrop, where it curves outwards from a straight angle the farther away from the vertex the edge goes.

## Strop material