Strops have two sides – a finished leather side and a raw hide side. Coat the finished side with honing compound. Holding the knife low to the strop pull the blade across the honing compound. Completed the stropping by working the blade over the raw leather side.
Give a final polishing to your blade by working it across a heavily printed newspaper. To keep your edge fresh strop the blade often during any carving session. A few pulls across the strop every half hour insures the sharpest edge possible.
The upper left knife has been properly sharpened with a long low bevel, ready for chip carving. The lower right chip knife shows the factory honed edge.