Thread: Is over stropping possible?

Funny but 70 year old (at the time) barber, doing it 50 years, told me very seriously, with somber face, "You can overstrop a razor." That was in 1984 or so. I played around with straights for a time back then but gave up shaving with them and only collected stub tails. Twenty five years later I began seriously pursuing this sport and found that Frank was apparently in error.

I've never been a marathon stropper. For a time I routinely did 50/50 on linen and leather. Now I'm down to 30/30 and 20 leather only following the shave. That said, I've seen guys enthusiastic about stropping do a progression from the cloth component to latigo, to horsehide ....... or whatever ..... of hundreds of round trips. They seem to feel this enhances their shaves, and they probably have forearms like Popeye.

I know of one celebrated honemeister who has begun to have repetitive stress problems in hands, elbows, and wrists from overuse, and he is not a marathon stropper as the aforementioned guys. Anyway ....... if you really want to know if you can overstrop a razor it is really simple AFAIC. Take a couple of different families of razors, Solingen, Sheffield, USA. Full hollow, quarter hollow and wedge.

Get a microscope and go to town on your strops. Examine the edges every 50 - 100 round trips. Are they deteriorating visibly ? Micro chipping, or wearing in some visible manner ? I would think for the average amount that we strop razors, assuming good technique, there is no perceptible wear, but I'm not sure.

I need to get a stronger magnifier. I do not see very well any more. My 40x and 100x are not showing me what I need to see. I got a 400x USB but it is so grainy. I'll work on my USB setup. I've seen photos from USB magnifiers here way clearer than what I'm getting.

Thanks again for your replies.

I think practically speaking the answer would be no. But as far as I know no one has ever taken a razor out to say 1000, 2000 laps and lived to tell the tale. Probably the only way to do tests to failure would be to make a stropping machine of some kind.

But it really is hard to see how you could ruin an edge with proper stropping - it's not like you are bending the metal back and forth when you strop, for example, and causing fatigue.

James.

I'll improve my magnified viewing and post if I find something.

I don't think I'll get up to thousands of laps but I'm just now comfortably getting up to couple hundred laps. I've had both shoulders rebuilt a couple times and I have found stropping is good for them. I'm starting to strop with my left hand to help balance and increase coordination for left handed shaving. My primary concern is heat build up. I know burnishing cue sticks with leather can get them too hot and warp the wood. Been there done that. LOL!

I agree with Jimbo
I don't think you can ruin an edge, even if you did 200 or more laps on it! Once it achieves the sharpest it can get, it can't get any better or worse by stropping in the correct way!

Originally Posted by jmercer

I'll improve my magnified viewing and post if I find something.

I don't think I'll get up to thousands of laps but I'm just now comfortably getting up to couple hundred laps. I've had both shoulders rebuilt a couple times and I have found stropping is good for them. I'm starting to strop with my left hand to help balance and increase coordination for left handed shaving. My primary concern is heat build up. I know burnishing cue sticks with leather can get them too hot and warp the wood. Been there done that. LOL!

There was talk about that on SRP maybe 5 years ago. I took full hollows and did 50 linen, 50 leather, and held the edge to the side of my face ........ I didn't feel any warmth whatsoever. IIRC a piece of high carbon has to be in the 400 + degree range before there is any risk of compromising the temper.

In my opinion, you can't really "over strop" or in other words cause damage to the razor from too much stropping. But I think at a certain point you're not making it any better. When the edge comes to a point, it's not going to get much sharper.

I don't see how overstropping (meaning damaging to the edge) could happen, given that leather is very much softer than the razor steel. Never went above a 100 or so passes though. Even though I really really like stropping.

I know experiments have been done with stropping daily using a pasted strop and after quite a while no adverse effects were found to the edge. So given that I can't see where with correct technique stropping on leather would cause an issue. Of course at some point returns would deminish meaning you are stropping for enjoyment only

Originally Posted by Jimbo

I think practically speaking the answer would be no. But as far as I know no one has ever taken a razor out to say 1000, 2000 laps and lived to tell the tale. Probably the only way to do tests to failure would be to make a stropping machine of some kind.

But it really is hard to see how you could ruin an edge with proper stropping - it's not like you are bending the metal back and forth when you strop, for example, and causing fatigue.

James.

+1... I agree with James. I routinely will take a blade that feels a tad 'tuggy' after multiple shaves, and my first go-to action is to strop it on leather about 150-200 laps. It always seems to work for me, as far as bringing back the edge. If not the blade will go back to the hones.