For years, on here and other places plus seeing it in movies and so on I seen and heard mentions regarding stropping (is that the proper term?). Anyway, the point is for years as a kid and teenager I ruined a  load of knives before I started to get good on the stone then messed with this and that. Now at 41 I just use the Sharp Maker for I am at a point in my life I want comfort and simplicity. However, a post in another forum person mentioned he hardly ever uses a sharpener and just keeps them them sharpen using a strop. He says he used a piece of wood and some leather.

For whatever reason I decided to finally research the concept/tool of strop. I found a youtube video of a guy using a piece of cardboard. Since I had that readily available I decided to test it. I grabbed 3 knives, tested the sharpness using a sheet of paper, then did the strop concept, and tested it again on the piece of paper.

I saw the difference and get it. However, got me thinking. If I got that kind of result using a piece of cardboard, what kind of results would I get with a “professional” made strop?

Thoughts?