Hi guys,
I'm fairly new to this but quite happy with my stropping rhythm.
My question is, does it matter if I lift the razor (spine and blade) off the strop at the end of a pass? I.e. turn the blade to go back again in mid air, rather than flipping the blade over with the spine still touching the strop?
i find it a lot more comfortable doing it this way but concerned I could affect the blade as I lift off the strop.
thanks for your help
John
my only concern would be that as you gain speed (i read some where a productive speed to be 40-60 laps a minute) it would be easy to set the cutting edge down before the spine. plus it may be difficult to reach a efficient speed that way.JMHO and YMMV
That's interesting, thank youQuote:
Originally Posted by tintin
Someone will probably say it is bad. However, I have lifted the razor slightly off the strop on the return for about 20 years with no problem. Just don't smack it down when you make contact.
Thanks BouschieQuote:
Originally Posted by bouschie
If you lift the spine before the razor stops, just once you will roll the edge.
The spine should never leave the strop.
Life is short, do what makes you happy, on the bright side… your honing will improve…
Lifting the razor off the strop complicates the process, adding an unnecessary motion. If you can strop well when lifting the razor from the strop, you can do just as well without doing it and therefore avoid problematic mistakes.
It is one of those quirky things. To me it is more important that your stropping is effective and you are comfortable with the technique. I think there are more places for things to go sideways doing it that way,however if it feels natural and you can do it well, you are probably further ahead than trying to learn a technique to satisfy a textbook example. If it feels good and is effective do it.
You can lift the razor off the strop, sure. And it can be effective stropping too. But you'd better be on top of your stropping game to pull it off effectively time after time, shave after shave.
Smaller movements have more control. Keeping the spine on the strop as you flip is a smaller movement than lifting the whole razor off the strop at each end, trying to make the spine hit first coming back down and then lowering the edge to the surface after that. That's actually a complicated movement when you think about it, and eminently more susceptible to mistakes. And that's not even mentioning the risk of rolling the edge on lift off if you lift the spine first while the edge is still on the surface of the strop, which is the natural movement associated with such an action.
The choice is yours of course, but my suggestion is to avoid it until and when your skill level is at a level where the risk is minimal.
James.
I think this type of stropping goes back to watching barbers flail away at the leather. Like Jimbo says, they were definitely on top of their game.
I have never figured out why my barber (as a kid) always flicked some water on his strop before applying the razor. The strop was leather.
I agree with Jimbo . Keeping the spine on the strop felt a little awkward at first , for me too . But it was easy to learn , and well worth the effort .
So glad I read this. Being a newbie, today will be my 5th day, I thought that the razor should be lifted of the strop at the end of the stroke but that the most important thing was having the edge lifted off the strop first.
Just tried stropping with the spine never leaving the strop and it felt so much better. It was also a much faster transition although being new I'm still very slow in comparison to videos I've seen. Still not totally comfortable with stropping but hopefully getting better.
Thanks
Doing it this way is like stopping and starting every pass and will be more time consuming. It can be done but odds are you will damage the edge and nick up your strop especially as you are still learning. If you are flipping the razor in your fingers then it should be a easy change to keep the blade on the strop. Good luck
That is simply not true. At least not in a general sense. Now if you were to exert a lot of pressure on the strop while doing that, or if you lift the spine to a 45-degree angle or something, then yes a rolled edge could result. But lifting the spine a tiny bit during normal stropping is not harmful, and could actually aid in straightening out the edge.Quote:
Originally Posted by Euclid440
Really?
Straighten the edge?
How do you know how much to lift?
Perhaps you can demonstrate this technique?
When I tried learning the thumb/idex no-wrist no-lift strop flip... phew. It seemed as difficult as learning how to tie my shoelaces in a bow when I was maybe four years old; it took about a week to sort it out. Glad I practiced with a butterknife - have yet to wreck a strop beyond a drop of rubber cement (and that has been a while). Result is a consistent, precise movement with very light blade contact. I honor the men who can lift, flip and continue to march with the same good resuts.
I yam followink method of hibudgl, as thees eez right method straight razor stroppink:
http://youtu.be/9mj5YliQQzg
I lift the razor off the stop each stroke because it's easier to position the blade( for me). However watching the video above has me trying this method and as I become less awkward with the movement it seems mechanically better
This . . . K.I.S.S. The fewer variables, the better. but, I am still less than ten shaves into my Straight razor journey, so what do I know?Quote:
Originally Posted by ace
Try it. As in most things in this hobby, YMMV, but I expect you might be pleasantly surprised.Quote:
Originally Posted by Euclid440
Learning to keep the spin on the strop can be difficult but over time it becomes second nature. For instance, if I try to start my strop session with the edge and the razor farthest away from me on the strop I get confused and have to stop. I strop the same way I have been for 35 years, with the edge towards me and the razor closest to me on the strop. I start off slow going away and then flip it on the spine so that the edge is away from me and then slow back. I pick up speed as I get into the swing of it.
mis dos centavos,....
I find that if I keep the strop quite taught and with very light pressure at higher speeds it is easy to lift off ever so slightly.
I could probably loosen the tension of the stop and apply a little more pressure?
And sometimes I do ..........";"
The big thing, to me, is to take your time and don't hurry it. It is so easy to flip just a bit too soon, and gouge the strop a bit. Not that I would know about that at all. :)
That video was very helpful. I played around with his technique yesterday and found the grip he suggested very easy. I also never considered stropping from the side as he did. I really like that. I found it much easier to get a smooth consistent motion going sideways instead of up and down.Quote:
Originally Posted by MisterMoo
This article I posted a while back talks about lifting the spine while stropping, many of us have used this method, and indeed it work, and quite well. Definitely not recommended for beginners.Quote:
Originally Posted by Euclid440
http://straightrazorpalace.com/shavi...le-1904-a.html
After ruining a leather strop. I started to go very slow. I would stop totally get into position and finished the turn. After doing that for a while I have picked up some speed. Good luck.