Thread: Don't neglect the art of the strop

I am a very new straight razor shaver myself. But, I want to echo what many of my fellow newcomers have heard several times over but, what many of us fail to heed: Learn to use your strop properly, learn to strop your razor properly.

As Lynn Abrams has said in several times in his videos, many of the razors that he sees come back for early honing show signs of improper technique on the strop. A razor's shaving edge can and will be improved just on your strop technique alone provided you have not damaged the edge by tapping it on another surface. I know how excited us new guys are about getting on with the shave, I truly understand that having gone through this myself.

But, I would most strongly recommend that you spend more time on the strops that you have and learn the proper techniques of keeping your razor flat on the strop, using only the weight of the razor on the strop and flipping the razor on the spine only. I would also recommend that you "warm" your leather strop by rubbing your palm up and down the length of your strop for a minute or so to get it ready for your razor.

Most of us novices spend a great deal of time on the shave itself because we need to learn our angles, hand placements on the razors, proper skin stretching, etc. and for good reason. And, this practice tends to set up a poor habit of more shave/less strop practice time. Now, I'm not saying to strop your razors into oblivion but, you should strop the normal strokes for your razor before and after (if you like that routine) and then, after your razor is away perhaps work more on the leather with a butter knife.

More strop time gents, and watch lots of videos. This is helping me a great deal and I want to share with you from a rookie's perspective just how valuable proper stropping is. You don't want to send your new shaver into the Master too early and take yourself completely out of the practice of straight razor shaving!

Best of luck to all, happy shaves!

Frank