I have been watching SRD stropping videos - now I am worried

First - I received my razor/strop set today from SRD. The shipping was unreal. It was mailed Saturday and I am in NC.

Second - Is it strange that I am equally fascinated by the stropping and touch up aspect of straight razor shaving as the shave itself?

Finally, I began watching Lynn's youtube videos on stropping. He was stropping so fast and easy I was blown away. I learned more from his dialog than the visual aspect.

I scoured this board for information. I was overwhelmed at first but the jargon and advice began making sense.

Now, after watching the videos, I am back to square one.

I guess I just need to go with it and do my best. I also bought his dvd. Hopefully that will help.

Does everyone strop as fast as Lynn?

Take care,
Jason

No. Some of us strop slowly and deliberately. Lynn has to strop a pile of razors, like barbers of old. You get faster as you need to.
I am old and slow. So is my stropping! :)

I'm pretty sure I strop faster than Lynn and I've even got a cut kanayama shell cordovan strop to prove it.

The point is not to go fast at all. I.E., you go slow so you can go fast. Stropping is second nature to Lynn, I'll bet he doesn't even think he goes fast.
So learn the basics, keep the spine on the leather, use a light touch, go slow...you're not sharpening the edge, you're polishing the edge. And when your muscle memory is dialed in (and you've ruined a stop or two:D), you'll be going as fast as you want to.

Awesome to hear the enthusiasm in your post.

As a beginner, I prefer/ed slow, precise strop passes. Also, if hand fatigued, I go back to slow and deliberate and take brakes, if necessary. I don't want to curl the edge by mis-stropping. Though, as you've indicated, there are a number of fascinating aspects about straight razor shaving. Maintaining the edge is definitely one of them.

If you haven't commited some travesty against all razor kind(as most of us have), for a touch up, I got a Naniwa SuperStone 12K and that did the trick. Oh, and watching Lynn's videos on honing with Naniwas. Then, I had an onset of HAD. Brief, but, productive(prolific?)

Slow wins the day, in my limited experience.

Kind Regards,
Simon

Slow and steady is the best way to go while learning. Some lat it flat out on a table also so tension isn't a factor. You will find it comes to you after a while and you do it without thinking. I was talking to my wife the other day and only realized after a bit I wasn't looking while stropping. Not something I would consciously do but proves that once the muscle memory is there is when it will look easy and the speed comes.

I too tried to "strop like Lynn" when I first started - which is why I'm on my second strop now. I've slowed WAAAY down.

Start slow and smooth. Speed comes later if needed. For me, the hardest part of speed stropping was keeping my pressure light. I tend to get heavy handed when stropping faster. Over time, it just becomes natural and in a while you'll be surprised at your improvement.

good advise all around, notice the theme? slooooww you wont save any time by rolling your edge! and Lynn has done this 10,s of thousands of times ,, (and hes showing off a little) so watch the video and you will get there ,, most new damage to our edges comes from trying to strop incorrectly or to fast good luck tc

I think if you watch my videos, particularly the one attached here, you will see that I STRESS not going fast and demonstrate that as well. The keys as I indicate are not to be tentative and not to try to go fast, but to use light pressure and develop a rhythm that will work well for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZffC...n-nCMQ&index=9

Have fun.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by realdog4

First - I received my razor/strop set today from SRD. The shipping was unreal. It was mailed Saturday and I am in NC.

Second - Is it strange that I am equally fascinated by the stropping and touch up aspect of straight razor shaving as the shave itself?

Finally, I began watching Lynn's youtube videos on stropping. He was stropping so fast and easy I was blown away. I learned more from his dialog than the visual aspect.

I scoured this board for information. I was overwhelmed at first but the jargon and advice began making sense.

Now, after watching the videos, I am back to square one.

I guess I just need to go with it and do my best. I also bought his dvd. Hopefully that will help.

Does everyone strop as fast as Lynn?

Take care,
Jason

---

For what it's worth, I regularly re-watch the videos of Lynn and Gssixgun when I think I may need an "adjustment" to some aspect of my technique. For me it's like re-reading an instruction manual or good book -- I often catch something the second, third or 4th time that I overlooked the first times.

I'd also add that there's nothing "fast" in SR shaving, except the push of the "buy" button on SRD and other shaving vendor sites. Slow and steady is the way to go with almost everything in shaving.

As others have posted WATCH LYNNS AND Ssixguns videos. Remember that TV and The movies are not really demos on how to but just entertainment. Lynns and Ssixguns are Demos on how to do it right. Also stropping a blade is not a race . for me it's take your time and besides I can't count to fast or too high.

No, if I strop that fast, I will cut the strop. I strop relatively slow.

like everyone else has said, your pace will increase with practice, like most aspects of shaving. i notice lots of comments about destroying strops etc, (not necessarily in this thread) like it is a given that as a beginner you will ruin your strop, whilst it seems common it isn't guaranteed, i am still using the same strop i made over a year ago as my first strop, yes it has a few scratches and nicks but it is more than serviceable, in fact i think it has improved with use (or i have just got better at it).
i have only read once i think that stropping speed makes a difference to the quality of the edge, but i don't really think the argument was substantiated.

Speed kills… a strop. If you do one stroke per second, 30 laps will take a full minute. What’s the hurry?

1. Go slow
2. Hold the tang with you thumb on the upper corner of the tang and the jimps. This will allow you to torque the blade on to the strop and prevent you from pressing down on the strop, killing the edge. Just enough torque to keep the edge on the strop.
3. The Spine never leaves the strop. Keep the spine on the strop always.
4. Stop forward motion before flipping, stroke, stop, flip, stroke, stop, flip. Having your thumb on the corner of the tang makes flipping smooth and easy by rolling your thumb in the direction you want to flip and rolls you thumb into position on to the bottom corner as it rolls over to the top.
5. Do not talk to anyone while stropping, guaranteed way to cut your strop.

It is just muscle memory, it will take 1000 perfect laps to begin to acquire memory.