Excellent do not roll the blade at all when stropping people have a tendency to doing that . A friend of mine came over to my shop one day to see how a carving job I was doing for him was coming along he was a woodworker also with a much bigger shop than mine I had an open roll of chisels on the bench he started telling me about this machine I should buy to sharpen my chisels I said that's ok I'm good he said ya but how sharp can they be as he was reaching to get one all woodworkers know you always get cut getting or putting them away well next thing blood all over the place holding his finger he sad wholly shit are they all that sharp LOL yep that they are. good luck with that sounds like your on the right road now sharpening should be fast and easy.