Okay, back to the subject of straight razors.
Here, I peeled off the protective paper from the acrylic bases and glued the balsa to them. They are drying upside down so the pressure will keep the boards from warping.
Once they were dry, I laid out a sheet of 400 grit sandpaper, dry (water will soak into balsa and ruin it), onto the table. I ran the balsa over the sand paper until I was certain any high spots were smoothed out.
I added a little bit of diamond paste, starting with 0.1um on the first. I then smeared it with my finger, and then using a clean rag I rubbed it in up and down the board until the board was covered. It is so fine the only way I could see it was from some discoloration on the cloth. I put that cloth in a bag along with the diamond paste. Then I washed my hands and fingers really good. This was to prevent any cross contamination of grits.
Once my hands were dried, I did the same thing to the 0.25 um and the 0.5 um. I made sure to not cross contaminate. That will ruin the edge and keep the stropping from giving a good edge. I wrote the sizes on the ends of the boards as I prepared them.
When that was finished, I set out the 0.5 um strop and made 10 up and back strops. I did 10 away and 10 towards me, the edge trailing. Then, I slid the razor sideways off of the strop on both sides to remove any wire edge. I used no pressure except the weight of the razor.
I didn't do the free hanging strop as the last step as I was just getting a feel for this.
Here I am stropping away from myself, edge trailing, starting nearest myself and moving away.
Here, I am making the stropping strokes towards myself. My hands are only providing stability, not pressure.
When I finished, I did 30 full back and forth strops on clean leather.
I'll post more later.
That's for sure! 
