Thread: Stropping - lifting the razor off the strop at the end of a pass

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

Originally Posted by tintin

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 you

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.

Originally Posted by bouschie

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 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.