Thread: Cut my strop..arghh

Been SR shaving for almost a month now. Been going well.

Last night I was stropping on my whipped dog "Poor Man's Strop". After stopping to turn off the water that was filling the sink, I picked up the razor and went back to my strop, edge first...Nice big slice near the top . It is still useable since it is near the top and I am very glad it was the strop and not flesh!

I suppose this in some way validates the idea of a "Poor Man's Strop" for a beginner...I would have cried if I had done this to a relatively new $200 bridle leather strop.

Lesson learned, slow and methodical with the sharp instruments. I expect this is somewhat like many other skills (flying, driving, etc) where the most dangerous time is not at the beginning of the learning curve, but it is in the middle where you are gaining confidence faster that you are gaining experience/skills.

Richard

Sorry to hear that, but that's why invariably it is recommended to get a "poor man's strop" for your first, because like my first strop, which is now partially shredded with a coating of crox on the back it takes a while to get the technique down.

No worries, it happens to most of us, and now you have an excuse to get that nice bridle leather strop....see? It's all good!

During my first week I did almost the same thing, except I cut my strop in two at the top. Opps!
At least it still worked lying on the counter top.
After 5 months of use, my second cheap strop just has a few tiny nicks in it.
I told myself I wouldn't buy an expensive strop until I went for a month without nicking the cheap one.

Originally Posted by criswilson10

During my first week I did almost the same thing, except I cut my strop in two at the top. Opps!
At least it still worked lying on the counter top.
After 5 months of use, my second cheap strop just has a few tiny nicks in it.
I told myself I wouldn't buy an expensive strop until I went for a month without nicking the cheap one.

That would take a major effort to do.

Surprisingly it didn't take too much effort on the first cheap strop. I dug it in deep and removed it by pulling the blade sideways and down instead of backing it out. It cut through that strop like a carpet knife through paper.
And immediately after the bottom of the strop hit the floor I muttered "You #*$$#&*(# idiot, you new better than to do that!"

But I haven't done it again, so I learned my lesson.

There oughta be a thread so every member can just enter the date he chopped his strop. Most have. I did two. One I cut the chopped part off and glued it to a balsa block. Now I can choose leather (once very, very nice) or balsa

My first strop had so many nicks and cuts that I told visitors that the dog had chewed it.

My first was roo. Couple of nicks to start with then in half when stropping a bit tired one night. Good thing is it was home made and I had spares so just popped a new one in. No longer strop tired.

Look at all the replies, True men admit that they have had an opps moment we all have . You have joined the club. I took a fingernail file ,smoothed it right out, a little neatsfeet oil and you should get quite a few good passes on it. Ive been at it a couple of years , and I have yet to cowboy up to an expensive strop. My nicks remind me of my failings and I use those as reminders to not do it again. Look on ebay at the vintage strops, see where others have done the same thing. Look at the location of their opps and go to school on them. Why did they do what they did? Most are at the ends doing the flip.

Several years ago I was stropping my Kamisori and it was pretty much an automatic thing to do without much thinking and I glance down and to my horror I'm stropping the thing edge leading. Yes there was quite a bit of fuzz in the edge of my razor and the strop got a rather good haircut but no cuts. Why did I do that? Search me however after that I decided I better use the DE that day.

Confucius say:Man who strop without thinking better be thinking about new strop.