Thread: week two, strop is ruined?

Hey Mike,
If you do a search on the top right of this page you will find MANY threads on how to repair your strop.
It is something almost all of us have done. As long as you didn't take chunks out of it.... it "should" be fine

no chunks, just did the search...after my post like atotal noob, which i loathe! pumice stropping, palm of hand, got it! thanks

And slow down.

Go to a fabric store and buy a yard of the widest nylon, with the finest weave they have, should be 3-5 bucks and probably about 2 inches wide.

Strop on nylon, until you get the hang of stropping. Nylon is very hard to cut or nick.

Keep the spine on the strop at all times and stop before you flip and SLOW down. 60 laps per minute is plenty fast. The nylon will give you as good or better edge, until you perfect your stropping technique. Later you can paste your nylon strop.

I used to get feather slices (like paper cuts) on my strop edges near where I flipped the razor no matter how careful I tried to strop. What finally stopped the nicking was holding the razor very loosely so the razor could pivot and keep its contact even along the length of the blade. I also tried to keep pressure on the strop very light as if the razor was moving and flipping by itself with only it's weight on the leather and that weight spread equally along its length and across its width. I also go slow, about 1 - 2 seconds per trip and travel about 10 inches each direction to help with control. Pay attention to the tactile feed back and sound. If the leather strop starts feeling gritty, wipe the blade and strop surface.

I find it easiest to strop on a 3 inch wide strop as none of the blade needs to over hang the strop edges making it easy to keep contact with the blade evenly distributed.

If I got a small leather flap cut, I glued it down with Tightbond glue and immediately wiped away all residues using a damp cloth and let the glue dry. I sanded the feather cuts. After cleaning the strop, the cuts became shallow with rounded edges that did not catch on the razor. After weeks of stropping, most of them have disappeared or have become almost invisible.

I found when I started, and had tgis same issue, it was due to the blade moving into the leather during the flip. It's very minute, and happens due to poor form on the flip. Really focus on making sure the blade edge is always moving away from the leather. There is no need to rush, so slowing things down really helps as well. Once you get the right motion, speed will pick up. I bought a konyama 90,000, and only recently started using it because I'm so fearful of damaging it. It could also be from too much pressure. I've found that less is more when it comes to stropping. On a good strop you can literally feel the edge getting smoother, similar to when honing with light pressure on a finishing stone. Good luck!

If it makes you feel better, I went through 2 strops in the first month. I finally stopped slicing up third one after another month. My fourth strop is still nick free after 10 months.

I hope I didn't just jinx myself...

The trick with the flip is to not touchdown the edge onto the leather until you have started to travel in the new direction.

yep going to fast , just slow down . maybe lay your strop on a table and use it like a bench strop till you learn how to strop, if your cutting it your not stopping the motion before you flip . slow is good any way tc

Stay with it. I ruined my first strop, practiced cutting the same spot on my face daily and had to send my Hart out to get resharpened because of my awesome stropping skills. Oh, I banged my Boker off the facet and had to get it fixed too. Slow down with the stropping, make deliberate passes on your leather and you will be fine.

When a pro got my Hart for honing he did say that it wasn't in great shape from the get go. It might be worth asking one of the experts on the site to hone your Hart while you are waiting for you new strop to arrive. I found that my Hart shaved much better after being honed by one of our guys than it did when I first received it.