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

Not enough can be said about stropping after a shave too.

Yes, one of the fundamentals of straight razor shaving.

I learned this the hard way, visiting a honemeister to learn how to refresh a blade on my coti, he looked at the edges of some of my blades and pronounced quite a few of them had rolled edges.

I was trying to be Mr. Speed Stropper, was lifting the spine off the strop, wasn't paying attention to steady contact, nicked my starter no-name strop to heck, which also is pretty bad for your edges, and had to go back to square one.

Now, I'm very, very careful to ensure the spine stays on the strop, and slowly but steadily up then a gentle roll of the blade on the spine, then back down, very slowly, as the saying goes, speed kills.

Good stropping is one of the fundamentals that will make the difference between success and failure in this hobby IMO...good post!

It's like you are talking to me lol. When I began to strop, speed was a thing for me. Now I can strop faster than a freaking machine! I look uber freaking cool doing it too!!

But it wan't effective.

Nearly two years on, I finally took some time to really focus on my stropping habits. Everything has changed - the shaves are remarkably better. As in remarkably!

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Not enough can be said about stropping after a shave too.

Yep. Very true.

As I say, 30 careful, attentive laps on the strop beats 60 sloppy, rushed laps on the leather.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

Not enough can be said about stropping after a shave too.

Yup, stropping after a shave is something I always do. After the blade is rinsed and dried between the scales and left to air dry for an hour. It get's 20 on the linen and 40 on the leather. Before a shave, it's get the same, sometimes more. And ofcourse, every 10 or so shaves, it get 10-15 laps on the backside of the leather on an old strop pasted with crox, refreshes and crisps the blade up wonderfully.

Originally Posted by Phrank

Yup, stropping after a shave is something I always do. After the blade is rinsed and dried between the scales and left to air dry for an hour. It get's 20 on the linen and 40 on the leather. Before a shave, it's get the same, sometimes more. And ofcourse, every 10 or so shaves, it get 10-15 laps on the backside of the leather on an old strop pasted with crox, refreshes and crisps the blade up wonderfully.

Great advice and certainly a routine that any novice could mirror and find success with.

Thanks for sharing your routine.

Frank

Is there a test you can do to tell when your blade is becoming rounded?

Originally Posted by aglose

Is there a test you can do to tell when your blade is becoming rounded?

Don't know of a specific test, but if the razor seems dull and sharpness doesn't return with good stroppng technique then the edge is probably rounded.

Originally Posted by aglose

Is there a test you can do to tell when your blade is becoming rounded?

Do a search on the Thumb Pad Test. Basically, you carefully place the pad or callus of your thumb gently onto the edge of the razor and carefully try to roll your thumb to the left or right. Don't push down at all or you will get cut, dull edge or not. If the edge feels like it is grabbing your thumb surface as you turn your thumb slightly, your edge is more than likely not rolled or dulled to the point requiring resetting the bevel.

If it feels slick and your thumb rolls to the side with ease, your edge needs to be beveled again.

Our more experienced hone Meisters can correct me if I have shared anything in error as I am still very much a novice.

Frank