A strop is a leather strip used to polish the edge of a chisel, plane iron or a knife. Stropping is the final part of the sharpening process in achieving a truly sharp edge. Stropping has always been the accepted way to finishing a cut throat razor edge guaranteeing the closet of shaves. Unlike honing which removes metal from the bevel, stropping burnishes away any microscopic metal strands clinging to the edge and polishes the bevel and back of the blade. Once the point where these two meet is as smooth as possible, the edge will be at its sharpest.