Thread: How offen

Hi all

How offen should I be stroping with a Balsa Wood Strops with Chromium Oxide and Iron Oxide Powders. I strop every day with the lether strop but wanted to know how offen with the Balsa wood strops.

Thanks Roger

I would have to say to stay on the leather strop untill you have issues that the leather can't resolve.
The oxides are abrasive and wear the bevel much more than the leather strop.
There is an old saying that took me awhile to appreciate......
If its not broke don't fix it.

That's what's commonly referred to as light touch up with paste. Most guys that use pastes will use them whenever they feel the edge begins to feel not quite like it did. Obviously very subjective. I have heard of guys stropping every day on pastes to see if it messed up the edge and they reported no issues. Dunno how much (if any) additional blade wear this caused.

All that to say do it when you feel like it needs it.

I know I'm gonna catch hell for this but here it goes anyways. Keep in mind I am not a seasoned veteran here. I will say that right up front but some seasoned vets have done some experimenting as JBPilot stated above. Most of these guys, I believe, used CrOx which is between .3-.5 microns. The FeOx or Iron oxide paste (from larry @ Whippeddog) is .09 microns which is MUCH less abrasive (according to the micron rating). I use that on balsa daily and have not even noticed a color change indicating any steel being removed. If there is steel being removed it is very minute and for now I continue to use the FeOx daily and the CrOx maybe once every 3-6 weeks. Remember this is just my limited experience and YMMV.

Thanks everybody for the quick response. I am very new and was not sure I think since my technique is probably not up to par I am going to stick with the leather strop until I have a problem. Again everybody thanks for all the great information so quickly.

Roger

I use a pasted strop only when my unpasted linen/leather strop seems to no longer be doing its job as well as I expect. Generally speaking, I try to use the least abrasive hone or pasted strop needed to get my razor edge back to its normal shave ready condition. The milder the abrasiveness, the less potential damage to the razor and the longer it will last before excessive hone wear ends its useful life.

My shave ready razors in frequent use may visit the pasted strop for 6 - 12 strokes once or twice a month. I strop on my daily unpasted strop, test shave and repeat, if necessary. How often refreshing an edge is needed depends on many factors including steel quality, beard toughness, shaving skill, and stropping skill. Very experienced razor users usually need to refresh or rehone less often than new users.

I like Torrey Razors. Torrey began business as a strop maker and transitioned to become one of the largest American straight razor makers. Below you will find Torrey's advertisements from about 1895 indicating that the fine performance of his strops can be attributed to the abrasives embedded in his strops. I suspect that using mild pastes frequently would take a very long time to wear out a razor.

This is very much a YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) answer, and rightly so... it depends on how well your razor will hold it's edge, how soft your beard is, how good your stropping is and your shaving technique. All of those things affect how long your edge will stay as keen as it can. Like others have stated, you should do it when the razor just doesn't feel like it did.

I, however, like to keep mine in as close to tip-top shape as I can, particularly because my beard is pretty wiry. I am using what I call a triple 5 routine:

After 5 shaves with a razor it gets
5 strokes on my barber's hone followed by
5 laps on a CrOx sprayed strop

I then strop and shave as normal. This has been working quite well for me (except for one particular razor, which may or may not have had the bevel set to 100% on the hones... I seem to have to touch this one up more often).