Thread: Rounded tip or not

So, ever since I fell into the art of straight razor shaving a few weeks ago, I have been religiously trolling the forums for advice to better my technique in all areas from lather, pressure, angle and stropping. There is so much information, it becomes overwhelming and confusing. One example is the subject of stropping. There are so many opinions on this and they all seem slightly different.

One particular part of the subject is the part of rolling the blade. I read this all the time from members replying to new members posts. When someone starting out comments about their shaves not working out, at least one person states that the edge could be rolled due to improper stropping.

My problem is, how do us new guys know? We could continuosly send our razors in for re-honing but that seems a bit crazy. I read somewhere that a new guy sent his razor in for honing fearing a rolled edge. The person doing the re-honing stated that he only had to strop properly to return the edge to shave ready.

Some say that a modular strop is best for learning, others say that modular strop are very pressure sensitive and can cause more problems. How is someone supposed to practice and get better while fearing their equipment is faulty? How can we learn to strop fearing we will ruin the edge on our newly honed razors?

I am going to persist on concentrating on my technique before I start questioning my equipment. I will concentrate on stropping, pressure, angle, and lather. I can only hope at this point, that I am teaching myself proper technique.