Thread: Now That is Smooth

As I posted before, I got a vintage razor off of eBay and honed it up and it was a really smooth shaving razor. The next day I shaved with my Dovo, which I've had for maybe 3 weeks, or so and it was pulling a bit and recalled that it had been for some while. Having nothing to compare it with, I thought that's just the way it was supposed to be. So, I stopped and finished with the DE for the day. I took the Dovo down and gave it 5 light passes over the 12k stone and 7 passes on canvas with crox followed by 20 passes on canvas and 50 on the leather then put it away. This morning I took it out and gave it another 50 on the leather and man was that a smooth shave.

Here's a lesson for noobs like me. If you get a razor from SRD or somewhere and shortly thereafter it doesn't seem to be very sharp and it's pulling. The chances are high that 1. It's your shaving technique or 2. which I think is the case here, your stropping technique was initially so bad (count the nicks in your strop to see how bad) that you've spoiled the edge. So, I got to learn a few important lessons that noobs will learn very quickly. First, in the very beginning stropping on a hanging strop is harder than you'd think it would be. Second, it's not hard to repair nicks in a strop. Lastly, if you've dulled the edge on your razor because of poor stropping technique, it's not hard to set things right again.

I think that one of the biggest obstacles in learning to strop well is the idea that if you really learn to do it well that you have to prove that by stopping fast.
Slow, deliberate movement, and light pressure will pay off far more often than a fast and furious stropping.

I don't strop fast even though I've been str8 razor shaving for 7 years and have been lucky enough not to cut my strops to shreds. Shoot, I don't have to be in a hurry any more....I'm retired!

Originally Posted by Galaxy51

I think that one of the biggest obstacles in learning to strop well is the idea that if you really learn to do it well that you have to prove that by stopping fast.
Slow, deliberate movement, and light pressure will pay off far more often than a fast and furious stropping.

Well, that could certainly be a problem. In my case, however, it was learning the technique of reversing direction by rolling the razor over the spine. At first, at the end of a stroke, I would come to a complete stop in preparation for turning the razor over. The amount of inadvertent, edge-leading movement from a dead stop on the strop required to create a nick is unbelievably minute. Thank goodness it is so easy fix, otherwise I would be very upset, 'cause those puppies aren't cheap. It only took two or three days to learn how to do it properly, but I put a good half-dozen nicks on the ends of the strop during that time. Compound those errors with too much or too little tension on the strop and too much and/or to little pressure on the razor and you're in the fast lane to Dullsville.

Agreed.... At least.
But if you "can run" why not. Its a level of experience to me. YMMV

That is one of the benefits to being....well, lets not say old, lets say mature.
I am 64, retired, and find that being in a hurry is somewhat of a struggle for me and doesn't often benefit me.
Its like the hare and the turtle racing type of thing.

I first taught myself to strop I concentrated on how to flip the razor with my fingers rather than using the wrist.
Then I concentrated on timing the flip at the end of the stroke making sure that the edge of the razor didn't hit the leather until the reverse stroke was in motion.
Then I was able to pick up considerable speed equaling or exceeding the speed of the folks doing the stropping videos.
Then I practiced that for about a year and then sprung for a new Tony Miller English Bridle leather strop.
That is a really good strop but after awhile I was so good at stropping that I could do it very well without even having to concentrate on the stropping.
All went well for a few months and then it happened. I don't remember if it was not enough am coffee, mind got totally distracted, a loud abrupt noise, whatever.
A big nick!
In the following months another smaller but obvious nick or two.
All the while I was making improvements in my honing and I started using a microscope after each stage of preparing the razor for shaving and discovered that a perfect looking edge off the hones didn't necessarily look so perfect after stropping.
Some razors were effected more than others.
I concluded that over time I was achieving much better edges but in doing so they had become more fragile.
I considered how much droop I was allowing on the strop and how fast I was flipping the razor and realized that if the steel at the edge was at all brittle my speed was contributing to chipping.
I considered that the leather, or whatever the strop material, offered a tiny bit of cushion to the flip.
I began to realize that possibly that the very sharp and delicate edge that I had learned to produce was not always capable of standing up to the fast and furious stropping technique I had been using.
When I began to take into consideration how delicate the edge was I realized a considerable improvement in the effectiveness of my stropping.
Dealing with brittle metal is another issue entirely.
Basically resolving that issue involves honing away the brittle metal until you reach the good stuff.
Good luck to you all.