Hone Your Blade with a Leather Strop
After you have used your stone to sharpen the blade, you can hone it even further using several techniques. It is common to repeat the process with a courser stone. In some cases, people start with a 400 grit stone, advance to a 600 grit stone and then finish with a 1,200 grit stone. You can also use a leather stop as a replacement for the 1,200 grit stone. A pre-made strop can be purchased or you can re-purpose a leather belt.
If you sharpen your blade with at least two grit stones and a leather strop, you will achieve a very fine level of sharpness that is suitable for intricate details and shaving a human face. You can test the sharpness of the blade by making sure that it can easily cut a small section of your arm hair.
Photo by LeatherStuffs – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0