Thread: Confusion about using a compound

i just ordered a starter kit that came with a leather/cloth strop.

1) Is it necessary to use a compound on the cloth? Advantages?
2) How often to strop with cloth (with or without compound)?
3) Recommended compound?

Thanks

Originally Posted by noetic

i just ordered a starter kit that came with a leather/cloth strop.

1) Is it necessary to use a compound on the cloth? Advantages?
2) How often to strop with cloth (with or without compound)?
3) Recommended compound?

Thanks

Welcome to the forum.

The "cloth" side is the, "linen" side of the strop and is used prior to stropping on the leather.

Usually a standard stropping routine is approx 20x linen 60x leather prior to a shave, whether right before, or as many do, the night before.

Many will strop lightly before a shave, and strop 20x linen 60x leather after they shave - this is generally what I do.

As far as a paste, they aren't really necessary at this point.

For the leather, simply use the palm of your hand and rub vigorously along the length of the strop until you feel the leather warm up. This will transfer the oils from your skin to the leather of the strop. Try to do that often, and this should be all you need to do.

Once your well down the path on learning to strop (make sure you read and watch some video's on proper stropping, it's vital), you can then look into the various options regarding pastes for the leather and the linen - right now, not a priority.

Hope this helps....cheers!

Thanks Phrank! Love the Einstein pic.

So using this standard routine how often should I expect to have the razor sharpened?

Originally Posted by noetic

Thanks Phrank! Love the Einstein pic.

So using this standard routine how often should I expect to have the razor sharpened?

When you're starting out, tendency is to be a little harder on the edge of the blade, but that comes with the territory.

If there would be one piece of advice I would suggest, it would be to pay close attention to learning to strop properly. If you don't, you can roll the edge of the blade, making shaving very uncomfortable and frustrating, this also results in having to have the blade honed, rather than touched up, say on a barber's hone or a finishing stone of some kind (more reading for you to do!).

But if you pay attention to the proper technique of stropping, practice even with the dull edge of a kitchen butter knife to learn the slow, rolling of the spine motion, you'll keep your edge quite nicely and potentially not have to send your blade out for several months.

Learning to strop properly can also save you from slicing to ribbons your new strop, which not only damages your strop, but damages the edge of your blade. Just stick to the basics for your first 20 or so shaves, good stropping technique, take care of your strop and razor (dry between the scales, don't let it get damp or it will rust) and learn to shave with your straight...keep reading, asking questions, and you'll enjoy the process....cheers!

If you strop correctly your edge should stay sharp for 6 months to a year. Just take your time like Phrank says. Remember when you see these guys in the vids on you tube, stropping a 180 miles an hour, they hone razors and sell strops. If they are showing you the right way they are stressing GO SLOW. Some of those guys sell strops and hone too, but they care about your face.

Phrank is giving good advice. We always say " he is not as dumb as he looks" :<0)

+1 to everything said. Leave your strop unpasted. Your every day strop need nothing but palm rubbing. A separate second strop for pasting can be purchased further down the track but for now just worry about the basics.

Very good, Thanks.